Oregon is amending the Sick Leave Law as of January 1, 2018. The goal of the amendments is to provide further clarification.
The law requires that employers provide paid or unpaid leave to employees working in Oregon. Employers must provide paid sick leave if they either employ at least 10 employees working anywhere in Oregon or employee an average of at least six employees per day in Oregon and maintain a location in a city in Oregon with a population exceeding 500,000 for each workday during the 20 workweeks of operation (i.e., Portland).
The main amendments to the Oregon Sick Leave Law are:
- It has been made clear that employers can limit the accrual of paid or unpaid sick time to 40 hours per year. Employees can still bank a maximum of 80 hours if they have 40 hours of carryover from a prior year and accrue an additional 40 in the current year.
- If employers have a paid time off policy that is equivalent or more generous to employees than the sick leave law requires the law requirements for use of sick leave only have to apply to the first 40 hours the policy provides per year.
- The amendment allows for exclusion of certain persons associated with the employer from the employee count. These individuals include directors of a corporation, members of an LLC, partners in an LLP, and sole proprietors, which have ownership interest of at least 15%. Members of the immediate families (child, spouses, and parents) of these people may also be excluded.
If you have any questions regarding the amendments to the Oregon Sick Leave Law, please give our office a call.