Title
Consider Directing Staff to Provide Health Insurance to Part-Time Employees Working Over 20 Hours per Week in Time for Fiscal Year 2020-21. (Councilmember Oddie) [Not heard on March 3, 2020]
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COUNCIL REFERRAL FORM
The Council can take any of the following actions:
1) Take no action.
2) Refer the matter to staff to schedule as a future City Council agenda item.
3) Take dispositive action if sufficiently noticed such that the public and Council have been provided sufficient information by the published agenda, and no formal published notice of a public hearing is required.
Name of Councilmember requesting referral: Councilmember Oddie
Date of submission to City Clerk (must be submitted before 5:00 p.m. on the Monday two weeks before the Council meeting requested): 2/10/2020
Council Meeting date: 3/3/2020
Brief description of the subject to be printed on the agenda, sufficient to inform the City Council and public of the nature of the referral:
Consider Providing Health Insurance to Part-time Employees who Work 20 Hours or More per Week, or at Least Half-Time.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, "Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health is the most shocking and inhuman.” Moreover, the current national debate over universal health care coverage supports the value proposition that health care is a basic human right.
The City of Alameda currently employs approximately 37 individuals working less than full-time, but over 20 hours per week. These employees are not entitled to health insurance. Many large employers, including Whole Foods, Costco, Lowe’s, Starbucks, and UPS provide coverage for part-time employees. And, a recent study of state government coverage showed 74% of part-time state employees had the option of electing health benefits.
This referral requests the Council direct staff to provide health insurance coverage to these employees in time for the 2020/2021 fiscal year. This referral also requests that the Council establish a policy that no city department shall reduce the hours of any employee working 20 or more hours (or at least half-time) for the sole purpose of making said employee ineligible for health insurance coverage.
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