16 / 30
16
Oregon Trucking Associations, Inc.
Oregon Truck Dispatch
The new law permits use of sick time to care
for and/or or help seek diagnosis and treat-
ment (including preventive) of a family mem-
ber with a mental or physical illness, injury,
or health condition. In addition, sick leave
may be used to deal with the death of a family
member. The statute lists spouses, children,
parents, grandparents, and grandchildren
as covered family members. The regulations
provide a definition of spouse, and expand
the definitions of child and parent. As a result,
the statute and regulations define “family
member” broadly as an employee’s spouse,
same-gender domestic partner, custodial
parent, non-custodial parent, adoptive
parent, foster parent, biological parent,
step-parent, parent-in-law, a parent of an
employee’s same-gender domestic partner,
an employee’s grandparent or grandchild,
or a person with whom the employee
is or was in a relationship of in loco
parentis. “Family member” also includes
the biological, adopted, foster child or
stepchild of an employee or the child of
an employee’s same-gender domestic
partner. An employee’s child in any of
these categories may be either a minor
or an adult at the time qualifying leave
pursuant to these rules is taken.
Generally stated, employers must provide a
minimum of 40 hours (5 days) of sick leave
per year to each employee. The employee
accrues sick leave at the rate of one (1) hour
for every 30 hours worked or 1-1/3 hours
for every 40 hours worked. Employers can
either grant sick leave on an accrual basis or
by “front-loading” sick time by giving the
employee a certain number of hours of sick
time as soon at the employee becomes eligible
to use sick leave and on the first day of the
immediately subsequent year without regard
to an accrual rate.
Employers with 10 or more employees
working anywhere in Oregon must provide
paid leave time. Employers located in Portland
must provide paid sick time if they have six (6)
or more employees working anywhere in
Oregon. An employer is “located” in Portland
if it maintains any office, store, restaurant
or establishment in Portland. Non-Portland
employers with fewer than 10 employees,
and Portland employers with fewer than six
employees must provide unpaid sick time.
For employees that are entitled to paid sick
leave, the law requires them to be paid at their
“regular rate of pay.” However, employees
need not be paid for lost commissions, shift
By
KEVIN
ANDERSON
and
JOHN
ANDERSON
Attorneys,
Anderson &
Yamada, P.C.
Oregon’s new
Sick Leave Law
REQUIREMENTSOFOREGON’SSICKTIME LAW
Effective January 1, 2016, employers that employ employees in the state ofOregon are required to implement sick time policies
and provide sick time to employees. Employers are also required to provide employeeswith a noticeof the law’sprovisions. This
notice is intended to summarize themajor provisionsof the law, but should not be relied upon as a full and complete summary of
the law.The full textof the lawandadministrative rulesadoptedby thebureauareavailableat
www.oregon.gov/boli.
Provisionof thisnotice toemployees complieswith the requirement in the sick time law foremployers toprovidewrittennotice
of the requireme
ntsof the law toemployees. Formore information,visitourwebsiteat
www.oregon.gov/boli
,or contactusat
971-673-0761or
mailb@boli.state.or.us .BradAvakian,Commissioner
Whenmust sick timebepaid?
Employerswith10or
moreemployees in the state (6ormore if theemployer
maintains a location in Portland)must pay employees
for sick time taken at the employee’s regular rate of
pay. All other employers must provide unpaid sick
time.
The number of all employees employed by the
employer in Oregonmust be counted – including full-
time,part-timeand temporaryemployees.
Forwhatpurposesmay sick timebeused?
Employees are entitled to use sick time for the
followingpurposes:
For an employee’s or family member’s mental or
physical illness, injury or health condition or need for
medical diagnosis of these conditions or need for
preventivemedical care.
To care for an infant or newly adopted child under
18,or for anewly placed foster childunder 18,or for a
child over 18 if the child is incapable of self-care
becauseofmentalorphysicaldisability.
To care for a family member with a serious health
condition.
To recover from or seek treatment for a serious
health condition that renders the employee unable to
perform at least one of the essential functions of the
employee’s job.
To care for a child of the employeewho is suffering
fromanon-serious illness, injuryor condition.
To deal with the death of a family member by
attending
the
funeral
or
alternative, making
arrangements necessitated by the death of a family
member,orgrieving thedeathofa familymember.
To seekmedical treatment, legalor law enforcement
assistance, remedies to ensure health and safety, or to
obtain other services related to domestic violence,
sexual assault, harassment or stalking incidents to the
employeeoremployee’sminor childordependent.
To donate sick time to another employee for
qualifying purposes
if the employer has a policy
allowing suchdonations.
For certain public health emergencies
including
closure by a public official of the employee’s place of
business, school or place of care of the employee’s
child,oradeterminationbyapublichealthauthorityor
health careprovider that thepresenceof theemployee
ora familymemberpresentsahealth risk toothers.
Notices and Verification:
In addition to providing a
notice to employees of the requirements of the law,
employers
are
required
to
provide
quarterly
notifications
to employees of the amounts of accrued
andunused sick time.
Employersmay require employees to provide notices,
verifications and certifications for using sick time under
certain circumstances. Forexample, if theneed for sick
time is foreseeable, employersmay require employees
to provide up to 10 days’ notice of the need to use sick
time. Refer to the lawand rules formore information.
Discrimination/Retaliation
Prohibited:
It
is
unlawful for an employer to deny, interfere with,
restrain or fail to pay for sick time to which an
employee
is entitled; or retaliate or
in any way
discriminate
against
an
employee
because
the
employee has inquired about the provisionsof the law,
submitted a request foror taken sick time.
Complaints
maybe filedwith theBureauof Laborand Industries.
Howmuch sick timedoes the law require?
Employeesbegin accruing sick timeon the firstdayofemployment
andearnone (1)hourof sick time forevery30hoursworkedor11/3hours forevery40hoursworked. Employees
mayuseaccrued sick timeon the91
st
calendardayofemploymentandmayuse sick timeas it isaccrued.
Employersmay choose to simply give employees (“front load”) 40 hours of sick time at the beginning of the year
rather than track thenumberof sick timehoursaccrued. Employersmayalso select the12-monthperiod tobeused
as thedesignated “year”,e.g., calendaryear, fiscal year,employeeanniversarydate,etc.
Employeesmay carryoverup to40hoursofunused sick time fromone year to the next;however,employersmay
adoptpolicies that limitemployees to accruingnomore than80hoursof sick timeorusingnomore than40hours
of sick time inayear.
Paid time off (PTO) policies that include time off for other purposes (such as vacation and other personal time off)
comply with the sick time law as long as the policy is substantially equivalent to or more generous than the
requirements of the law. “Substantially equivalent”means that employees are allowed to use at least the same
numberofhours for the samepurposesunder the sameormoregenerous rulesasoutlined in thisnotice.
Employeesmust use accrued sick time in hourly increments unless to do sowould pose an undue hardship to the
employer, inwhich case theemployermay require sick time tobe taken inminimum incrementsof fourhours if the
employerallowsemployees touseat least56hoursofpaid leaveperyear forabsences coveredby this law.
Collective Bargaining Agreement Exception:
The
sick time law does not apply to certain employeeswho
are covered by a collective bargaining agreement,
employed through a hiring hall andwhose benefits are
provided by a joint multi-employer-employee trust or
benefitplan.
Download a Sick Leave Law poster from Oregon BOLI:
www.oregon.gov/boli/WHD/OST/Documents/Sick-Time-Poster.pdf
On January 1, 2016, Oregon became the fourth
state to require employers provide paid sick leave
to employees. Oregon’s new sick leave law applies
to all Oregon-based employers and to all employers
wherever they are based if they have an employee
or employees who work in Oregon. The following is
intended to give you basic awareness of the new law
and its main requirements.