After winning praise for extending health care coverage to many of its part-time employees, Trader Joe’s won’t be doing so any longer for workers who log fewer than 30 hours a week, the Huffington Post reported.
Instead, the company will cut part-time workers a check of $500 and help them find insurance in the exchanges under the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare.
Trader Joe’s will continue to offer health coverage to employees who work 30 hours or more on average, the news site also reported.
Under the federal government health care overhaul, the law requires that companies with 50 employees or more offer coverage to full-time employees, though this particular aspect has been delayed for one year.
I haven’t shopped the exchanges yet, but I doubt that $500 — a one-time payment, presumably — will be more than a drop in the (cleanup in aisle 2) bucket.
As I concluded in my book “Build a Brand Like Trader Joe’s” this is more evidence that the company’s current senior management *fails* to understand that those chatty, happy crew members are the foundation of the brand.
Small changes in the ways employees are evaluated, and given raises & promotions have already resulted in a visibly more disgruntled workforce. This will have a similar effect.
Now that Albrecht (long time owner) is dead, senior managers feel freed to make decisions, but like other shortsighted American executives, they’re trading short term gains for long term brand erosion. The good ship is off course.