Health care bill - companies who hire temporary workers

[wildflowergardener]

I am reading through the summaries of the health care bill, and am trying to figure out how the company I work at will be affected. We may have over 50 employees, but I work for a landscape company, so many of the employees are temporary seasonal workers - laid off in winter, and hired again in the Spring, Summer and Fall. I wonder if the seasonal workers count for the purposes of this over 50 worker penalty if they don't provide health insurance - at this time they do not provide health insurance for the seasonal workers.

[wildflowergardener]

1. Seasonal workers

I did a search through the bill and think I found the part I needed. Since we pretty much work through April through November, that is over the 120 days so the workers would not be seasonal for the purposes of this bill. I also read about an amendment being taken out of the bill that would have required construction companies hiring over 5 full time employees to purchase insurance for their workers. It sounds like the unions are going to keep fighting for this as a separate issue - but it was taken out because it could not be passed through reconciliation.

‘‘(2) APPLICABLE LARGE EMPLOYER.—
5 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘applicable
6 large employer’ means, with respect to a cal7
endar year, an employer who employed an aver8
age of at least 50 full-time employees on business
9 days during the preceding calendar year.
10 ‘‘(B) EXEMPTION FOR CERTAIN EMPLOY11
ERS.—
12 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—An employer shall
13 not be considered to employ more than 50
14 full-time employees if—
15 ‘‘(I) the employer’s workforce ex16
ceeds 50 full-time employees for 120
17 days or fewer during the calendar
18 year, and
19 ‘‘(II) the employees in excess of 50
20 employed during such 120-day period
21 were seasonal workers.
22 ‘‘(ii) DEFINITION OF SEASONAL WORK23
ERS.—The term ‘seasonal worker’ means a
24 worker who performs labor or services on a
25 seasonal basis as defined by the Secretary of
VerDate Nov 24 2008 09:39 Dec 29, 2009 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00348 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6203 E:\SENENR\H3590.EAS H3590 wwoods2 on DSK1DXX6B1PROD with BILLS
349
HR 3590 EAS/PP
1 Labor, including workers covered by section
2 500.20(s)(1) of title 29, Code of Federal
3 Regulations and retail workers employed ex4
clusively during holiday seasons.

[Massacure]

2. A part time worker counts as 1/2 a worker.