Think Progress reports that Darden Restaurants (Olive Garden, Red Lobster) has reconsidered its decision to reduce the hours of their full-time workers to avoid having to provide them with health insurance:
AP is reporting that, in an effort to stem the negative attention, Darden will announce Thursday that they will not be moving any workers to a part-time schedule because of Obamacare. The company is, however, keeping the option open of relying more heavily on part-time employees in the future. Ultimately, reports a Darden spokesman, they tested a shift to part-time staff and found a decline in satisfaction all around:
After Darden’s tests were reported in October, the company received a flood of feedback from customers through its website, on Facebook and in restaurants, said Bob McAdam, who heads government affairs and community relations for Darden. Additionally, he said that internal surveys showed both employee and customer satisfaction declined at restaurants where the tests were in place.
“What that taught us is that our restaurants perform better when we have full-time hourly employees involved,” he said… McAdam declined to give specifics on the internal surveys but said the decline was “enough to make a decision.”
This is, of course, after all the negative press they’ve attracted since their announcement in October — and a subsequent drop in stock value.
The only way to get their attention is to punch these companies in the pocketbook.
