Walt Disney World has offered to elevate 427 part-time workers to full-time status because those employees have worked enough hours during the past year to qualify as full-timers under the federal Affordable Care Act.
But officials with the Service Trades Council, the coalition of unions that represents more than 30,000 full-time and part-time workers at Disney World, say they are hesitant to accept the offer because it could mean elevating some employees over more-senior part-timers who have been waiting for full-time positions.
The 427 part-time workers whom Disney would make full-time represent a tiny sliver of the giant resort’s total part-time workforce. Disney has approximately 24,000 part-time employees.
Disney declined to discuss the offer, which was first reported by Bloomberg News.
Disney part-timers generally work no more than 25 hours a week, but they can pick up extra shifts. So some have been able to work more than 1,500 hours during the past year — the approximate threshold used to define full-time employment under the Affordable Care Act, the sweeping health-care-reform legislation championed by President Barack Obama.
Click here for the story in the Orlando Sentinel.
