For disabled workers, Market Basket crisis especially hard - Business - T...
1 of 4
BUSINESS
By Jack Newsham
http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2014/08/25/for-disabled-workers...
LIFESTYLE
| G LO B E C O R R E SP O N D EN T
METRO
A U GU S T 2 6 , 2 0 1 4
MARK LORENZ FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE
Paul Byron sits on the back of his pickup truck outside the Market Basket store in Epping, N.H.
The numbers do not look good for Paul Byron.
Fifteen years ago, Byron started working at Market Basket. He puts in 89 hours a month at
the deli counter in the Epping, N.H., store, earning $12 an hour. For 10 years, Byron has
suffered from two disabilities: mixed connective tissue disease, in which his immune system
attacks his body, and pulmonary fibrosis, which makes breathing hard.
RELATED: No accord in Market Basket discussions
8/26/2014 10:21 AM
For disabled workers, Market Basket crisis especially hard - Business - T...
2 of 4
http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2014/08/25/for-disabled-workers...
CONTINUE READING BELOW ▼
Two weeks ago, his hours were cut to zero. Byron had two sources of income, his job and
federal disability payments. Now, he has one.
Byron must work 1,000 hours this year to be
eligible for Market Basket’s profit-sharing
program, which puts $2,700 into an account
Fate of Market Basket remains
in limbo
Byron plans to leave to his wife when he dies. But
if he makes more than $1,070 a month, he loses
his disability payment. Every month brings a
balancing act: working his way toward the 1,000
hours without earning so much that he loses a
month’s worth of disability payments, which exceed his salary.
“On a good month, where I feel like I can do the extra [hours], I can’t,” he said. “Each week
that goes by, that’s working against me.”
Byron isn’t alone.
When thousands of part-time Market Basket employees had their hours eliminated two weeks
ago, many despaired. Some of them were their household’s only earner. Some had worked
those jobs for years. But for Market Basket’s disabled employees, the cuts were especially
harsh.
Although Market Basket could not say how many disabled workers it employed, 7.8 percent of
supermarket workers in Massachusetts and New Hampshire have some disability, ranging
from back injuries to debilitating mental illness, said Andrew Houtenville, research director
at the University of New Hampshire’s Institute on Disability. For Market Basket, that would
mean more than 1,000 disabled workers have lost their hours.
RELATED: Arthur T. offers $1.5 billion for Market Basket
In the working population at large, 4.6 percent of workers are disabled.
“The loss of Market Basket is a big loss,” said Jeff Gentry, director of youth services at
Triangle, a Malden-based nonprofit that helps disabled people. He has found jobs for four
disabled high school students at Market Basket stores north of Boston, and at least three of
them lost their hours. Some had worked there for years.
“They’re an ideal employer of a young person with disabilities,” he said. “They’re very clear
about their expectations, and their managers are just fantastic supporters of their workers.”
8/26/2014 10:21 AM
For disabled workers, Market Basket crisis especially hard - Business - T...
3 of 4
http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2014/08/25/for-disabled-workers...
Gentry has recently helped a disabled employee apply for other jobs after losing his hours at
Market Basket.
Vicente, an employee with an intellectual disability who was coached on his job by Gentry,
has worked at the Chelsea Market Basket for five years. (Gentry, who told Vicente’s story with
his permission, did not want his last name used for fear of being fired.) He spends three days
a week pushing carts and bagging groceries and uses the income to augment his disability
payments. Like many of the grocery chain’s other employees, Vicente loves his job. The pay is
good, and he has family members who work there as well, Gentry said.
Now, Gentry said, he’s considering helping Vicente and a few other disabled Market Basket
workers file for unemployment benefits.
Victoria Crisp, administrator of special education for Chelsea’s public schools, said she
noticed Market Basket’s practice of hiring disabled employees in several stores. The store has
been a longtime employer of disabled high school students in Chelsea and other places she’s
lived, Crisp said, where students who might have learned in different classrooms worked side
by side, pushing carts and bagging groceries.
But Crisp added that disabled students and recent graduates are losing more than income
when they aren’t getting hours at Market Basket.
“They’re not gaining any skills if they’re not working,” she said. “Working is an important part
of life, to give you purpose as an adult.”
The federal government has provided tax credits to companies that hire disabled people, said
David Hagner, a research professor at the University of New Hampshire who has spent 25
years researching disability in the workplace. But those credits — worth $2,400, and only
applicable for one year — haven’t been extended by Congress for 2014. Rather than tax
credits, Hagner credits Market Basket’s community spirit for the long tenures of many of its
disabled workers.
“There’s a definite different feeling at Market Basket,” said Hagner, who is boycotting the
stores. “It’s hard to put your finger on, but a more humanistic kind of feeling.”
Market Basket crisis hits disabled workers hard
Despite more negotiations, fate of Market Basket remains in limbo
Boston Capital: Market Basket can thrive again
Arthur S. Demoulas shows generosity and resolve
Arthur T. Demoulas’s personal touch can cut both ways
8/26/2014 10:21 AM
For disabled workers, Market Basket crisis especially hard - Business - T...
http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2014/08/25/for-disabled-workers...
Examining a decade of Demoulas family fighting
4 of 4
Infographic: Inside the board meetings
Timeline of events in Market Basket standoff
The state of Market Basket
Watch: An overview of the Demoulas family feud
Meet the Market Basket board of directors
Infographic: How the ownership structure breaks down
Horowitz: The saga of Demoulas' Market Basket
Interactive: Social media reports mapped
Jack Newsham can be reached at jack.newsham@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter
@TheNewsHam.
© 2014 BOSTON GLOBE MEDIA PARTNERS, LLC
8/26/2014 10:21 AM