Big Unions Looking For More From Obamacare

Under Obamacare, employers with at least 50 full-time employees are liable for a $2,000 per employee penalty if they do not offer qualified coverage and one employee obtains a federal premium subsidy to purchase coverage in a public insurance exchange.

But a resolution adopted by AFL-CIO delegates at their convention calls for the full $2,000 penalty to apply to employers that do not offer coverage to employees working as little as average of 20 hours a week, with a pro-rated penalty for employees working less than 20 hours.
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In its resolution urging a lowering of the 30-hour requirement, the AFL-CIO said the 30-hour standard “falls short of what is needed to prevent irresponsible behavior. Employers are preparing to avoid penalties by cutting workers’ hours and pay, thereby creating a new underclass of less-than-30-hour workers.”

Another AFL-CIO adopted resolution calls for exempting health care plans covering unionized employees from a health care reform law provision that will impose, starting in 2014, a $63 per health care plan participant fee.