PA College Cuts Worker Hours to Avoid Obamacare
“It can’t be long before they do it other places.”
Life is tough for faculty and staff at Pennsylvania institutions of higher learning nowadays.
First, faculty recently authorized a strike at Pennsylvania state universities. Now, one community college is slashing instructor hours to avoid fees related to the implementation of Obamacare. Wynton Hall of Breitbart – Big Government has the details.
Pennsylvania’s Community College of Allegheny County (CCAC) is slashing the hours of 400 adjunct instructors, support staff, and part-time instructors to dodge paying for Obamacare.
“It’s kind of a double whammy for us because we are facing a legal requirement [under the new law] to get health care and if the college is reducing our hours, we don’t have the money to pay for it,” said adjunct biology professor Adam Davis.
On Tuesday, CCAC employees were notified that Obamacare defines full-time employees as those working 30 hours or more per week and that on Dec. 31 temporary part-time employees will be cut back to 25 hours. The move will save an estimated $6 million.
“While it is of course the college’s preference to provide coverage to these positions, there simply are not funds available to do so,” said CCAC spokesperson David Hoovler. “Several years of cuts or largely flat funding from our government supporters have led to significant cost reductions by CCAC, leaving little room to trim the college’s budget further.”
The solution, says United Steelworkers representative Jeff Cech, is that adjunct professors should unionize in an attempt to thwart schools seeking similar cost-savings efforts from avoiding Obamacare.
“They may be complying with the letter of the law, but the letter of law and the spirit of the law are two different things,” said Mr. Cech. “If they are doing it at CCAC, it can’t be long before they do it other places.”
Under the new CCAC policy, adjunct professors will only be allowed to teach 10 credit hours a semester. Adjuncts are paid $730 per credit hour.
“We all know we are expendable,” said Mr. Davis, “and there are plenty of people out there in this economy who would be willing to have our jobs.”
Surprise: PA College Slashes Instructors' Hours to Avoid Obamacare (Breitbart - Big Government)
Comments
“[The Father] causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” (Matt. 5,45)
That is just the nature of things, but in a different world CCAC spokesperson David Hoovler and United Steelworkers representative Jeff Cech – gee, I wonder who these characters voted for – would suffer the full consequences of their voting decision and the rest of us would be spared.
This exact scenario happened to me at work, too. I had to go from full-time to part-time because we moved away and I’m working from home, and I’ve been told that I mayn’t work more than 25 hours per week because otherwise they’d have to provide me health insurance under ACA.
I wasn’t very happy (my hours were cut by a third) but I can understand the decision-making process.
Cech’s complaint about violating the spirit of the law while complying with the letter…well, isn’t that a trick the unions pull, too? Of course, because they’re unions, when they do it, it’s okay.