According to an absolutely infuriating item posted on Jezebel this morning, Juicy Couture, the shitty fashion line aimed at tacky wannabe Beverly Hills wives—at least the ones who want the word “Juicy” festooned across their ass cheek implants—has come up with a new LOW for treating their employees before the Affordable Care Act comes into effect, in particular the clause that states that a company employing more than 50 people working over 30 hours per week must pay for the employee’s basic healthcare costs.
Juicy Couture management’s outrageously offensive solution to duck out of their responsibilities to their thousands-strong workforce was pretty predictable: Cut all of their retail staffers down to less than 30 hours a week!
Two former employees of the chain’s New York City flagship store say Juicy Couture has a shady new policy of replacing full-time workers with part-timers — because only full-timers are eligible for paid sick leave, and because it wants to skirt its obligations under the A.C.A. The two workers, Darrell and Duane, say they were hired as full-timers and had their hours cut without explanation. Darrell had worked as a full-time employee at the store for two and a half years. Duane says that when he asked about why his hours were cut from 40 per week to 14, the store manager told him it was because he had a 5-year-old daughter and couldn’t guarantee his complete availability.
Nice, right? Ain’t that America?
Darrel and Duane are working with the Retail Action Project to get the word out and are sponsoring a petition demanding that Fifth and Pacific, the fashion house’s parent company, drop this policy:
When we began working at Juicy Couture, many of us were full-time. Now, only 19 of the store’s 128 employees are full-time! Not only are they firing full-time workers and replacing us with a part-time workforce, just this month Juicy capped all part-time workers hours at 21 hours per week. We quickly realized that Juicy Couture is doing everything they can to not take care of its workers.
See, it was hard enough for us to make ends meet in New York City as full-time retail workers. But by keeping hours under 30 per week, Juicy Couture will no longer be required to offer their workers affordable health care — part of the Affordable Health Care Act’s plan to make sure more working Americans have basic health care. Further, we were told we’re only eligible for paid time off in case we’re sick or have other responsibilities if we work 1400 hours in one year. We did the math, and realized part-time workers reach that at 21 hours per week. This means that the vast majority of Juicy Couture’s workers will not ever get one single paid sick day.
But here’s the best part: Fifth and Pacific made a profit of $57 million dollars last quarter!
I doubt if many of our readers wear their awful clothes, but a boycott seems far more appropriate than a mere petition. Fashion is a fickle business, how many people are going to want to wear the logo of a company that just shits on its workers’ heads like this?
Sign the petition: Tell Juicy: Take Care of Your Workers!
Posted by Richard Metzger
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04.02.2013
01:35 pm
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