Monday, December 1, 2014

Holiday Party Tips: Ho Ho Hold the Liability


Tis the season for Holiday Parties
You want to get your employees together for a bit of holiday fun -- but how can you share some holiday cheer without opening yourself up to potential liabilities.


The  Do's and Don'ts for successful & safe company parties:

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Post-Incident Drug Testing

Cardinal sent out an email alert on November 7, 2014 regarding Oregon Ballot Initiate 91, which decriminalized recreational marijuana. In the alert, we advised reviewing your drug testing policies and following some suggested best practices. This article focuses on best practices surrounding post-incident drug testing.

Friday, November 7, 2014

Recreational Marijuana and the Employer

Ballot Measure 91 Passed. Now What?


On November 4, 2014, Oregon voters passed Ballot Measure 91, legalizing the non-medical possession and use of marijuana for adults age 21 and older.   The law goes into effect July 1, 2015.


 
Background: Should you still drug test? 

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Oregon Health Exchange - Open Enrollment

Open Enrollment begins on November 15, 2014
Open enrollment for individuals begins on November 15, 2014 and is open until February 15, 2015.  During open enrollment individuals may buy a health insurance plan from the exchange for the first time or shop around for a different plan. 

Once purchased, the new plan can go into effect in as little as 30 days. In reviewing the CoverOregon.com website it appears that individuals shopping for private health plans will go to the CoverOregon website to make sure that they qualify for a non-employer plan.  If they do qualify they will be directed to the Federal exchange website, HealthCare.gov, to see if they qualify for a subsidy, shop for a plan and to purchase coverage. 




Monday, October 13, 2014

Veterans Day - What Employers Should Know

Employees who are veterans as defined by Oregon law and are scheduled to work on Veterans Day may ask for that day off. They must provide 21 days’ notice of their intent to take the day off and document their status as a qualifying veteran.


Upon receipt of the request, an employer must determine whether providing the time off would cause “significant economic or operational disruption,” or whether allowing time off is an “undue hardship” as described in Oregon discrimination law. If so, the employer is not required to provide the day off.

At least 14 days before Veterans Day the employer must tell the employee whether time off will be provided and whether it will be paid or unpaid.

Monday, September 29, 2014

2015 Oregon Minimum Wage

Released September 17, 2014 in a Bureau of Labor and Industries Press Release it was announced that the Oregon minimum wage for the 2015 calendar year is $9.25 per hour.


Print FREE Employer 2015 Required Posting.

If you have Employees with a minimum wage rate of pay with Cardinal, we will automatically make this adjustment January 1, 2015.

Monday, September 1, 2014

Have an Employee Handbook? - You need one!

What to expect.

The benefits of having an employee handbook are many. Employee handbooks are the perfect place to outline all of your company policies as well as benefits. This lets employees know what to expect from your company and what you expect from them. Policies covering anything from dress code to social media use can be discussed amongst management and documented in writing; that way when issues do pop up you won’t have to skip a beat.

Your handbook should clearly state that it is not a contract with employees.  Instead, it should outline your employment relationship while it exists in its at-will nature.

Although having employees sign off that they have read or will read their employee handbook is a smart move, the publication generally serves as a reference point when questions arise, so don’t worry whether your handbook is one page or a whole binder.

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

2015 Health Insurance Rates Released

A recent headline reads, “Average health insurance rates lower in 2015." In aggregate this is great news for all Oregonians that utilize the health insurance exchange, CoverOregon.  One year is not a trend but after years of double digit increases Oregon businesses would welcome rates stabilizing like workers’ compensation did in the 1990s. Oregon is still benefiting from those changes.

A closer examination of the approved rates shows some insurers with increases but others with double digit decreases.  This is counter to what I had expected.  The coverage from the health insurance exchange began in 2014.  The following logic was put forth that insurers would have to submit rate changes in the first half of 2014, thus they would not have actuary data to base rate changes.  Unless insurers were able to approximate changes based on the available data another explanation may be a push to gain market share or decrease exposure (decrease market share).  Moda is an interesting example.  They had some of the lowest prices in 2014 but in 2015 there will be significant increases in premium.  Another large carrier, Providence, had similar large decreases.  Overall pricing seems to be converging into a narrower band.

ACA Strategies

If you have 100 Full Time employees and Full Time Equivalents in 2015 or 50 Full Time employees and Full Time Equivalents in 2016 you will be subject to the $2000 tax/penalty under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) if you do not provide health insurance.  Often the option to pay a tax or provide health insurance is framed as two options-pay or play.  Either you pay the $2000 tax or provide health insurance to your employees.  And many large employers are doing just that, crunching numbers and watching competitors to decide which of the two options they should take.

An employer that has 150 employees resulting in a yearly $200,000 tax there is considerable incentive to minimize their tax. We will look at some of the other options that have been proposed as alternatives to pay or play to reduce or eliminate taxes under the ACA.  At this point I should note that I am not intending to provide legal or tax advice.  These strategies have not been tested and you should really obtain advice from someone that is ‘certified smart’ like a CPA or an attorney.  Nor am I responsible for any bad PR should you implement any of these strategies unsuccessfully.

Independent Contractors – Turning your employees into independent contractors. This option comes up every time there is a new cost of having an employee.  An independent contractor does not just avoid the ACA tax but also other costs like workers’ compensation or unemployment taxes.    The problem with this option is that the test of the status of an independent contractor is not clear cut and even varies within different government agencies.  Having dealt with some litigation on this matter I would highly recommend getting legal advice before making any of your employees independent contractors.  I would also note that once an “independent contractor’s” services are no longer needed they often file for unemployment.  The process of obtaining unemployment benefits often begins to unravel the independent contractor status of that firm’s outsourced help.

Outsourcing – Speaking of redeploying your workforce and processes, this is one area that may gain some traction.  Employers that want to stay below an arbitrary number, say 50 employees, can outsource some functions.  Examples include payroll, HR or recruitment.  This can provide flexibility for employers that offer increased pay in lieu of health insurance so employees can obtain subsidies for themselves and family on the exchange (link to article).

Employee Only Health Insurance – Anecdotally this option is very popular.  Just like the example in the previous paragraph, the availability of health insurance from the employer restricts the ability for the dependents to obtain a subsidy in the health insurance exchange.  And employers generally do not pay for a spouse or children. If the employer restricts the plan to only employees then the rest of the family can apply for a subsidy on the exchange.  

Splitting up the Business – When the ACA was first passed I heard talk about splitting up businesses into units smaller than 50 employees.  There are rules on what is called combinability in the ACA and reportedly this is very difficult to do.  When I was asked about this option I referred the employer to an attorney and have yet to see anyone to do this.
 
30 Hour Work Weeks – You may have heard of this possibility in the news.  An employer makes nearly all of their employees part time and thus avoids the $2000 tax. If you offer shifts of less than six hours it has the added benefit of not requiring a lunch break.  On the other hand it is an administrative nightmare by nearly doubling of the number of employees when restricting employees to five 5-hour shifts.  Management would have to monitor employee’s hours to ensure employees do not become full time employees and thus have to offer benefits or pay a penalty. Plus recruitment and retention is negatively affected.  The question employers should ask themselves is if this option is really worth saving about $1.50 per hour on labor?  I have not seen it widely adopted and I suspect that the more likely scenario is that full time employee’s hours will be maximized while part time employees are not allowed to pick up additional shifts.  

Minimal Essential Coverage Insurance Plan – To avoid the $2000 tax a large employer has to offer a health insurance plan that provides minimal essential coverage.  That does not mean that the coverage meets the definition of health insurance that is offered on the health insurance exchange.  In fact these plans generally cover considerably less and thus cost considerably less.   The employer pays a significant portion of that plan (which is still much cheaper than providing exchange level health insurance) to ensure that there is at least an initial 70% participation rate.  In order to meet the eventual requirement of a 95% participation rate the employer may have to pay for the entire cost of the premium.  Employees that sign up will not be subject to the individual mandate penalty.   Additionally the employer offers a separate plan that meets the definition of minimal value (coverage levels equivalent to the health insurance exchange) and costs less than 9.5% of employee income.  The employer is counting on fewer employees signing up for the more expensive plan.  The downside to this plan is that employees will not be able to obtain a subsidy in the health insurance exchange as they are being offered an employer plan.  This could create some ill will towards the employer.  On the other hand there are reports of employees specifically requesting this minimal coverage and employers doing so to retain staff.

Arin J. Carmack
Risk Management
Cardinal Services

Medium Sized Employers and the ACA

As we get closer to 2015 employers that are close to 100 employees (or those in 2016 that are close to 50 employees) should to decide if they want to be a large or small employer under the Affordable Care Act.

If you already offer health insurance many parts of this article will not apply to you.  You should however check to be sure that your plan meets the definition of health insurance (ask your agent).

Monday, August 4, 2014

Paying Salary; Does it Add Up?

Paying an employee salary instead of hourly is just easier, right?! No more dealing with figuring and paying overtime and turning in time cards.

Actually, legally some employees that you may want to pay salary may still be entitled to overtime pay and unpaid meal breaks.

Interested in paying your employee salary
In order to stay compliant by classifying employees correctly, first you'll need to determine if the employee is exempt or non-exempt. Exempt simply means that they are exempt from certain wage laws such as paying overtime.

Monday, June 30, 2014

Curbing Driving Liabilities


If an employee is driving a company vehicle, there are additional vehicle liability risks the you should be aware of. This includes, but is not limited to, vehicle insurance coverage. If an employee is driving any company vehicle we advise you to check with your insurer to review coverage details.

We have two great tools Cardinal provides to help curb driving liabilities:
 
DMV Check

Cardinal reviews a Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) Drivers Record Printout on all employees that will be driving while on the clock. This driving record will show a list of all DMV related activity and your potential driver's record will be resulted as either and "A", "B", or "C" depending on the amount of negative driving activity found on the record.


DMV Flag
In addition to the DMV Check, Cardinal does report current drivers to Department of Motor Vehicles Automated Reporting System (ARS). ARS is a service provided to employers with drivers under their employment.  This service produces and sends the employer a court print driving record when a conviction, accident, or suspension is posted to one of their employee's records.

You will be notified down the road if an active driver suddenly has a driving record that does not pass the safe driving standard. If Cardinal has concerns with a driving record we will contact and review the results of our check with you.




We do not offer coverage for vehicle insurance liabilities.

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Travel Time: Paid vs. Unpaid


Think of all the driving that your employee may do in a day. Driving to work, running errands, jobs or maybe training attended out of town, ... Which in all these situations are employers required to pay as travel time?! 

There are 4 different categories of travel time ….
  • Portal-to-portal
  • Travel between work sites
  • Special one-day assignments
  • Overnight travel

Monday, May 5, 2014

Who Is Scanning Your Email?

Google and Yahoo have recently admitted that they scan user's email to make their advertising more relevant. Google points out that “no humans read your email” but it is not clear what limits there are on these companies’ ability to use the information they receive. Their terms of use agreements provide some direction but appear to offer wiggle room on what can be done with your content in their system.  It is reasonable to have these concerns with other free email providers as well.

Cardinal is very concerned about information security, primarily with documents that contain sensitive information like a Social Security Number or date of birth.  We are rolling out our new employer site and one of the planned upgrades is to allow clients to directly upload documents into our secure server.  This will bypass the need to send Cardinal sensitive documents by email. In the mean time we advise not utilizing any service that may store sensitive information outside of your control.

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Quirky Work Time

It seems like it would be straight forward but in the real-world of employment there are some quirky circumstances! It can be confusing and you may end up unsure if you need to pay an employee or not. Learn the rules behind what the law considers Paid Time. 
Working Time
Under federal and state rules, ‘hours worked’ includes both time worked and time of authorized attendance. This means that you must pay for anytime an employee performs work, whether the work was authorized or not. This includes work performed away form the job site or even at home.

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Wellness and the Affordable Care Act

There are plenty of conversations about the rise in health insurance rates.  Politicians on both sides debate the merits of the ACA and its role, or lack of a role, in shaping the direction of health care costs.  Health care providers, insurance companies and malpractice attorneys are just a few of those taking some or all of the blame for rising rates.

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Legal Update 2014 - Part 2

At the Federal level there are two big items related to labor law.  

The first is in regards to a Supreme Court ruling on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).  The court ruled that benefits must be extended to same sex couples if the state they reside in recognizes same sex marriages.  What is unclear is how that applies in states that do not recognize same sex marriages.  Even more unclear is if a same sex couple gets married in a state that recognizes same sex marriages but lives and works in a state that does not.  Since the ruling on DOMA focuses on benefits, like health insurance or 401(k) plans, you should contact the administrator of those benefits and ask about the criteria they have set.  Then update your employee handbook to match their advice.

Thursday, February 27, 2014

Employer Bootcamp | Today's Workplace

Learn the unwritten rules that face today’s employers. How have Technology and Demographics changed the workforce? How can employers benefit from this knowledge?

This workshop will look at generational comparison and common threads to help business owners understand people today. it will also consider technology and its role in the workplace, its effect on workers, and how the employer can benefit. It will also provide an  over view of management trends. 

This Employer Bootcamp originally took place with Lane Community College's Small Business Development Center on January 15, 2014 but you can catch up below...  

WATCH VIDEO:
Today's Workplace. 

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Delay in the Employer Mandate

Once again there is a change in one of the key provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). 

The employer mandate requires all large employers to either provide health insurance to their employees or pay a penalty/tax of $2000 per employee per year (the first 30 are tax exempt).  


A large employer is defined as having 50 or more employees (IRS determination of a full time employee). Originally the employer mandate was to take place in 2014 but was delayed until January 1st, 2015. The employer mandate is still scheduled to take place in 2015 but for penalty/ tax purposes the definition of a large employer will temporarily be changed to 100 or more employees until 2016.  

Stay tuned as there have been several changes as we move closer into full implementation of the ACA.

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Legal Update 2014 – Part 1




This two part 2014 legislative update will look at new and changing laws as well as general trends on the local, state and federal levels.

MUNICIPAL


Effective January 1, 2014 sick pay leave changes came into effect for Portland OR. The key is that it applies to employees that physically work in Portland. Accrual rate is one hour of sick leave for every 30 hours worked- capped at 40 hours.  If you already have a PTO or sick leave policy that meets these definitions then you are covered.



Why is that important outside of Portland?

Monday, February 3, 2014

Love us and the Error



With love in the air surrounding Valentine’s Day, workplace romance is a hot topic for HR. Now might be a good time for your organization to consider your stance on Workplace Romance. 

Intracompany romance is fairly common these days as the office is where we spend so a third or more of our weekdays. Preventing employees from coupling is nearly impossible. Many companies have implemented policies because you cannot stop staff from having romantic relationships but you can attempt to protect the company from a claim.  It only takes one sour situation to realize why this is important.