Amazon Owned Whole Foods is Cutting Health-care Benefits for Hundreds of Workers

Well this certainly isn’t the way any worker would want to start 2020 off, by not having health-care benefits.

According to Business Insider, healthy food chain Whole Foods, which is owned by Amazon, has decided to cut health-care benefits for 1,900 part time employees beginning next year.

Workers previously needed to work a minimum of 20 hours a week to qualify for the benefits but now the policy will change to needing at least 30 hours.

Less than 2% of the company’s workforce will not be eligible for medical coverage.

“In order to better meet the needs of our business and create a more equitable and efficient scheduling model, we are moving to a single-tier part-time structure,” a company spokesperson wrote in an e-mail.

They added, “We are providing Team Members with resources to find alternative healthcare coverage options, or to explore full-time, healthcare-eligible positions starting at 30 hours per week. All Whole Foods Market Team Members continue to receive employment benefits including a 20% in-store discount.”

Disclaimer: We have no position in Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) and have not been compensated for this article.