Yearly Archives: 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 […]


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 Portal-to-Portal Travel Portal-to-portal travel consists of an employee´s normal home-to-work and work-to-home travel at the beginning and […]


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 by scanning your email. 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 […]


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 […]


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. One area that deserves more attention but is over looked is the consumer.  […]


2014 Legal Update – 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 […]


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 […]


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 Legal Update – 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 […]


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 policies. 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 […]