When the national office supply chain Staples threatened to fire any employee who worked more than 25 hours a week because of ObamaCare regulations, President Obama showed he’s had just about enough.
\The president tore into the company in a Buzzfeed interview where he said; “There is no reason for an employer who is not currently providing health care to their workers to discourage them from…being able to avail themselves of the Affordable Care Act”. Staples responded by pointing out that this policy had been around long before the existence of the ACA, although it was only strictly enforced over the past year.
This strict enforcement came as a result of the rule contained in the ACA requiring corporations to provide access to healthcare for all employees working 30 hours a week or more. To make matters worse, Staples and its CEO bring in more than enough money to be able to provide healthcare to their employees. Just last year Staples brought in $23 billion in total revenue, and Ron Sargent, the CEO, made $10.77 million.
Clearly Staples can afford to provide health benefits to their employees. Unfortunately this is not the first legal incident Staples has had to deal with regrading employee treatment in recent memory. Just five years ago, Staples paid a fine of $42 million as a result of not paying overtime to their employees.