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Both the Oregon Legislature and Portland City Council were busy in 2013. Employers must address many changes before 2014 begins. To prepare, review the following brief guide to the new laws and ordinances affecting employers. Please note that these are brief descriptions and not intended as either a full treatment of each law or a substitute for legal advice.

Oregon has four new leave periods: 1, sick time (Portland employees only); 2, Veterans Day leave; 3, bereavement leave; and 4, domestic violence victims leave. Employers should be sure that their handbooks, policies and procedures are updated and that HR professionals, managers and supervisors are trained on the new leave laws.

In addition to penning the new leave requirements, Oregon lawmakers have created employee protections for interns, same-sex couples and social media users.

Portland sick time

Beginning Jan. 1, 2014, private employers and the city of Portland must provide sick leave accrued at the rate of one hour for every 30 hours worked for a maximum of 40 hours of leave in a calendar year. The major points of the city ordinance are:

• Employers with six or more employees must provide paid sick leave to Portland employees; employers with fewer than six employees must provide the same amount of sick leave, but it may be unpaid.

• Eligible employees are all employees who spend any time working in Portland, including full-time, part-time and temporary employees.

• Portland employees will begin to accrue sick leave on Jan. 1.

• Employees hired after Jan. 1 will begin to accrue sick leave on the first day of work.

• Employees cannot use accrued sick leave until they have worked 240 hours within the city of Portland in a single calendar year and not until the 91st day of employment (or, for existing employees, the 91st day of 2014).

• Employees can roll over up to 40 hours of unused sick leave, but can use only 40 hours in a given year.

• Existing PTO policies that meet or exceed the Portland requirements qualify under the ordinance as long as the PTO can be used freely for sick leave. Qualifying uses include: diagnosis, care or treatment of the employee or the employee’s family member for any mental or physical illness, injury or health condition, including preventive medical care; issues related to domestic violence, harassment, sexual assault or stalking; work, school or child care closure due to a public health emergency; and when a family member’s health is a public health concern, or when the employee is excluded from the workplace for health reasons.

For additional information or to download notice posters and letter templates, visit www.portlandonline.com/fritz/index.cfm?c=55242.

Veterans Day leave

As of Veterans Day 2013, U.S. veterans in Oregon may take Veterans Day off by requesting the leave 21 days prior to the holiday. Employers must grant the request unless doing so would be a “significant economic hardship.”

If leave is denied, the employer must deny leave to all employees who requested the time off under the new law, or deny leave to the minimum number of employees needed to avoid “significant economic hardship.” If a veteran is denied leave, the employer must offer a replacement day within the same year.

Bereavement leave

Eligible Oregon employees may take up to two weeks of leave per death of a family member to make arrangements necessitated by the death, to attend the funeral or memorial service, or to grieve.

Domestic violence victims leave

This leave is available to eligible Oregon employees who are victims of domestic violence, harassment, sexual assault or stalking for the purpose of seeking legal or medical assistance, obtaining counseling or victims services, or relocating. Victims may take as much leave time as is “reasonable” given their individual circumstances. Following the leave, the employee must be allowed to return to the same job or a job with a reasonably equivalent status, pay, benefits and other employment terms.

Intern protection

Unpaid interns in Oregon are now entitled to most of the same protections under the law as regular employees. Under the new law, unpaid interns are now protected from discrimination and retaliation on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, marital status, age, military service and disability. The statute also provides protection for unpaid interns who report, in good faith, information that the intern believes is evidence of a violation of a state or federal law, rule or regulation.

The new law also extends discrimination protection to Oregon unpaid interns who are victims of domestic violence, harassment, sexual assault or stalking. In addition, interns receive the same level of protection as employees against privacy intrusions in the form of breathalyzer tests, polygraph tests, psychological stress tests or brain wave tests.

Same-sex marriage

Although Oregon still does not license same-sex marriages, it now recognizes legal marriages between same-sex couples. Married employees must be treated the same whether they are married to a same- or opposite-gender spouse. Employers should review payroll, benefits and leave policies to be sure they are in compliance; they also should train their HR professionals and managers.

Social media

Oregon employers are prohibited from requiring or requesting employees or job applicants to disclose or provide access to personal social media accounts. An employer may not require or request that it be added to its employee’s or applicant’s social contact list or that it be allowed to view employee’s or applicant’s personal social media accounts.

Don Stait is Special Counsel in Littler Mendelson’s Portland office. Contact him at 503-889-8874 or [email protected].