Will Forever 21 workers be known henceforth as Forever 29.5?

Could happen, as the teen-focused clothing maker has cut back all its line workers to 29.5 hours a week in an apparent move to get around the health care benefits trigger of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

The company didn't cite the PPACA as the impetus for its decision — quite the opposite. It insisted that the decision was made "independent of the Affordable Care Act." Rather, it was strictly the result of an internal audit of stores that indicated a new workforce design was needed, it said. As part of its response, Forever 21 also noted that it has promoted and converted 421 part-time store employees to full-time status since March of this year.

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Dan Cook

Dan Cook is a journalist and communications consultant based in Portland, OR. During his journalism career he has been a reporter and editor for a variety of media companies, including American Lawyer Media, BusinessWeek, Newhouse Newspapers, Knight-Ridder, Time Inc., and Reuters. He specializes in health care and insurance related coverage for BenefitsPRO.