Regal Entertainment Group has unleashed a torrent of criticism from customers on its Facebook page after cutting the hours of thousands of non-salaried employees to avoid Obamacare requirements to extend health insurance to workers who put in more than 30 hours a week.
The nation's largest movie theater chain did not return calls, but FoxNews.com obtained a company memo in which it blamed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act for the move.
"To comply with the Affordable Care Act, Regal had to increase our health care budget to cover those newly deemed eligible based on the law's definition of a full-time employee," the memo said.
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"To manage this budget, all other employees will be scheduled in accord with business needs and in a manner that will not negatively impact our health care budget," it said.
Nashville-based Regal, which operates more than 500 theaters in 38 states, joins Applebee's and Olive Garden, among other companies, that have either considered doing so or moving forward with plans to scale back the hours of workers in response to the landmark legislation.
The state of Virginia also rolled back the hours of its part-time employees back to 29 per week in February, citing the cost of the health care mandate.
The response to Regal's decision, at least according to postings on its Facebook page, was largely negative.
"I will never view a film at a Regal facility again," Facebook user Chris Binnett wrote. "Greed and selfishness make me sick."
"I will never patronize one of your theaters again. Period," another Facebook post, by Andrew P. Wood, said.
Other posts criticized Regal CEO Amy Miles' 31 percent pay bump and the company's billions of dollars in profits last year.
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