Part-Time Employees; Fewer Hours but Equal Rights

With the upcoming Affordable Care Act (ACA) implementation some employers have been opting to drop a percentage of their employees to part-time status to avoid paying hefty health insurance fees for not offering coverage as they would for full time employees.

Employers should be careful not to become under the impression that part-time employees can be terminated or treated differently than full time employees. The Department of Labor does not have a distinction between the legal rights of part-time employees and those of full time staff in any condition of employment.

Why Hire Part-time Employees?

Inclement Weather/Emergency Closures and Payment

It’s August, and hopefully, most employers have had a reprieve from inclement weather in recent months.  However, some regions of the country experience their most severe weather conditions during the warm summer months, leading to workplace closures or delayed openings due to hurricanes, flooding and tornado activity.

It is recommended that an organization has a clear policy in place regarding inclement weather. 

Health Insurance Rates have been released

Oregon’s health insurance exchange is moving forward and appears to be on track to keep their original timeline.  Individual and small group plans should go on sale in October 2013.  In July 2013 the exchange started approving health insurance rates that had been submitted in April by participating health insurance carriers.  A number of rates filings have been approved during the first two weeks of July.  You can see a sample of the approved rates at: http://www.oregonhealthrates.org/?pg=approved_rates.html 

Protecting Your Unemployment Account

Employers are often surprised at how easily a former employee can establish a successful unemployment claim.  With respect to unemployment claims, the largest misconception among employers is that terminating an employee for substandard performance will disqualify the individual from receiving unemployment benefits.  In most states, unless the employee’s behavior rises to a level of “misconduct,” the claimant will be deemed eligible for unemployment benefits.  Thus, terminating an employee for “poor performance,” “incompetence” or “inability to perform the job” will almost always qualify the former employee for unemployment benefits.

ACA Employer Mandate Delayed

A delay in implementing the Affordable Care Act was announced yesterday.  The mandate for businesses who employ 50 or more workers to provide health insurance has been delayed until 2015.  The delay is to provide more time to comply with the new rules and reporting requirements.

The individual and small business exchanges are still on track to open for enrollment on October 1.

TimeTrex – Information Security

Remember to not use a Social Security Number or date of birth in TimeTrex. 
Additionally, it is best not to use a partial of the SSN or DOB in TimeTrex in fields like an employee number or password.  If you would like to use a unique employee number please feel free to use the randomly generated employee number Cardinal assigns to all employees.  Your Cardinal representative will be able to provide you with that number.

Don’t Lean into My Cubicle Like That!

Sexual harassment is, by definition, a type of discrimination which includes gender-based harassment, bullying, or coercion of a sexual nature.  Any type of unwelcome or unwanted sexual advances, requests for favors, or other conduct that is used as a condition of employment may be considered unlawful sexual harassment. If a supervisor uses sexual favors as a basis of employment decision-making, whether between same-sex or opposite-sex individuals, this too may be considered sexual harassment in the workplace.  It is imperative that an employer has a thorough workplace policy in place which communicates the company’s zero-tolerance of any type of harassing  behavior, as well as what employees may do if they become victims of harassment.  Employers who are proactive in training employees and supervisors, and regularly enforce the organization’s stance against harassing and intimidating behavior in the workplace generally have reduced exposure to harassment-related liability.