Report: Obama criticizes Staples on healthcare

Washington, D.C. – President Obama is not pleased with how Staples and other large U.S. companies are handling employee health benefits. In an interview with BuzzFeed, Obama said that Staples and other corporations should not use the Affordable Care Act as an excuse to reduce employee hours or wages.



"It's one thing when you've got a mom-and-pop store who can't afford to provide paid sick leave or health insurance or minimum wage to workers, but when I hear large corporations that make billions of dollars in profits trying to blame our interest in providing health insurance as an excuse for cutting back workers' wages, shame on them," Obama told BuzzFeed.



Staples has reportedly told part-time employees not to work more than 25 hours per week at risk of being fired. That number of hours puts them under the ACA threshold requiring an employer to provide health benefits to employees who work at least 30 hours a week. Obama said that Staples “should be willing to allow those workers to get the Affordable Care Act without cutting wages.”



In response, a Staples spokesperson told CNNMoney.com that the policy capping part-time hours worked per week is more than a decade old, Staples offers numerous opportunities for advancement to full-time positions, and that Obama “appears not to have all the facts.”