OXFORD — Selectmen voted Thursday to amend the maximum number of hours part-time employees can work in order to avoid providing them with health insurance as required by the Affordable Care Act.

The national health care law requires employers of more than 50 people to provide health care coverage to those who work 30 hours or more a week. Key provisions of the law, including the requirement, will go into effect at the beginning of 2014.

The amendment passed by selectmen lowers the maximum hours part-time employees can work to 29½ per week. The town may change the policy again when it determines how many employees will be eligible for coverage under the law.

Maximum hours for part-time employees were revised up to more than 30 hours a few years ago to ease scheduling, Town Manager Michael Chammings said.

The town did not budget for health care costs for part-time employees in 2014, Chammings said. He estimated five to seven current employees might qualify to receive health care, but said it was almost impossible to be certain without reviewing each employee individually.

By changing the policy now, the Town Office can take notice of which part-time employees reached their maximum hours and look back to revise the policy in 2015, he said.

The ACA could also complicate budgeting for part-time employees in the fire, rescue and police departments in 2014, Chammings said.

“This is going to have an affect on us, no doubt about it,” Chammings told selectmen. “It’s not painless, absolutely not.”

Many other employers, including many towns in Maine, were contending with unanticipated effects of the Affordable Care Act, Chammings said.

The change in hours will most likely affect the Fire Department, which employs about 21 part-time firefighters who cover the department in two-person teams for 12-hour weekday shifts, fire Chief Scott Hunter said.

When emergency response, training and other paid time is all added up, it will be difficult for many of the department’s part-timers to stay under 30 hours, he said. Until the situation is clarified, the department may have to bring on new firefighters in order to stay within the new hourly requirements, he said.

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