Florida Facing $300M Fine Over Health Insurance for Part-Time Employees

By | January 18, 2013

  • January 18, 2013 at 12:51 pm
    L. Ramey says:
    Like or Dislike:
    Thumb up 0
    Thumb down 0

    My spouse has been working part-time, referred to as OPS, 40 hrs a week for eight years. A large part of the Florida Gov’t workforce are people like here doing the same job as full-timers. The only real difference is she is not the same classification plus she works for minimum wage. She accepts these terms, though it would be nice to be like her fellow workers. In some cases she has more job responsibility than the full-timers. She has a higher education than most of here coworkers, bless their hearts.

    Should the Florida Government cut the hours of people like her to ‘save money’ the people of Florida will be the bigger losers.
    There will be a loss of overall production output not to mention attrition as a result of some deciding it is not worth continuing to work there. Complain about government services now. Wait till there is even less.

    Florida has dedicated workers like her. You should be thankful for that the next time you need gov’t services from her department.

    Regards,

    L. Ramey

    • January 18, 2013 at 5:07 pm
      Expert Novice says:
      Like or Dislike:
      Thumb up 0
      Thumb down 0

      I wonder how many part-time state workers get their health insurance from their spouse’s plan instead of the state plan?

  • January 18, 2013 at 2:28 pm
    Cheetoh Mulligan says:
    Like or Dislike:
    Thumb up 0
    Thumb down 0

    Give the part timers all a raise to compensate them for a cut in hours and cut their hours to 29 hours a week. Worker still gets the same pay and Florida saves the fine and cost of insurance.

    • January 18, 2013 at 2:46 pm
      Mel says:
      Like or Dislike:
      Thumb up 0
      Thumb down 0

      All the state employees should get a raise period. Putting OPS in will make the insurance go up anyway so the raise, if put in, will at least offset the increased cost and it won’t reduce paychecks again like the 3% has. Still would be nice to get a raise after almost 7 years.

    • January 21, 2013 at 12:39 pm
      LocalWorker says:
      Like or Dislike:
      Thumb up 0
      Thumb down 0

      You must not be one of those part time workers!
      Most of the positions are part time because the dept needs another full time worker but it is not budgeted-they cannot afford the “benefits” side of it, but the work still needs to be done. These people get no paid time off, no holidays, and are often short changed on things like one-time bonuses (they’d be the last ones to be considered for any raises) just because they ONLY work 39 hours or less a week.
      FL can comply with rule by offering insurance, but only paying a percentage based on their average # of hours worked per week-so if they pay $400/mo for 40 hours and I only work 20, then FL only pays $200 and I have to make up the difference. There will plenty of those PT workers that cannot afford it, but you’d probably see many that would jump at the chance to have decent insurance.
      PT workers deserve some respect-too bad it took a law of this magnitude to force employers to give it or pay fines.

  • January 20, 2013 at 9:07 am
    Wayne says:
    Like or Dislike:
    Thumb up 0
    Thumb down 0

    So what happens if the State refuses to pay the fine?

  • January 22, 2013 at 4:37 pm
    John says:
    Like or Dislike:
    Thumb up 0
    Thumb down 0

    6,900 workers * $2,000 fine per worker = $13,800,000

    How do you get to $300,000,000? What am I missing?

  • January 23, 2013 at 11:16 am
    Huh! says:
    Like or Dislike:
    Thumb up 0
    Thumb down 0

    Another fine example of how Obamacare is making our lives worse instead of better. It’s past time to re-think the plan.

  • February 8, 2016 at 2:06 pm
    Joyce Arnold says:
    Like or Dislike:
    Thumb up 0
    Thumb down 0

    So, what was the final out come of this ruling? January 2014 it was effective to offer part time state employees benefits or not? This is 2016, and I know of part time employees with me that are not getting the benefits…
    Thank You



Add a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*