Whole Foods To Cut Medical Benefits To Part-time Workers: Report

SUNNYVALE, CA — When the clock strikes to mark 2020, part-time workers at Whole Foods supermarkets will no longer receive medical benefits, according to a report.

The national grocery chain, which is owned by mega online shopping corporation Amazon, is cutting health care coverage options for employees who work 20 hours a week, Business Insider reported.

The change will affect about about 1,900 employees. That's about 2 percent of the total workforce at its 483 stores across the country, the online business news organization indicated.

As part of this Silicon Valley city's premier development, Whole Foods intends to open a store below an AMC movie theater by the end of this year on the 36-acre CityLine project.

The stacked Whole Foods-AMC combination will be located at Sunnyvale's southwest corner of the development where Murphy and McKinley avenues meet. Whole Foods has signed a lease for that site, according to the city planning department.

The South Bay location joins 42 other stores "in development," according to the Austin-based grocer's website.

City Planner Noren Caliva-Lepe told Patch the project has "generated buzz" including public comment in the several meetings over the last decade since it represented a twinkle in the city's eyes.

Phase One encompasses 198 one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments with indoor and outdoor amenities, which include 24 affordable homes along Taaffe Street. The city estimates the project to entail $20 million in public improvements involving the extension of streets as well as landscaping and traffic improvements.

The Amazon-owned premium grocer already has stores scattered around the Silicon Valley, including Santa Clara, San Jose, Campbell, Palo Alto, Los Altos, Cupertino, Redwood City and Los Gatos.

Whole Foods made the decision "to better meet the needs of our business and create a more equitable and efficient scheduling model" and will provide affected workers "with resources to find alternative healthcare coverage options" or to "explore full-time, healthcare eligible positions starting at 30 hours per week" with the chain, according to the Business Insider report.

Requests for comment by Patch went unanswered, along with those issued last month about the Sunnyvale project.

Part-time workers are still going to receive some job perks – such as a 20 percent in-store discount, the report said.

Read the full Business Insider report.

See also

• Whole Foods To Open In Sunnyvale

—Patch staffer Kimberly Redmond co-wrote this report.