Articles Discussing General Topics In Oregon Labor & Employment Law.

On November 19, 2018, Oregon’s Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI) issued its administrative order and rules implementing the Oregon Equal Pay Act of 2017 (the “Pay Equity Law”), which includes restrictions on salary history inquiries, expands existing remedies available to employees, and provides a safe harbor for employers that have voluntarily assessed their pay practices to identify and eliminate discriminatory pay practices.1 The administrative rules, summarized below, provide guidance on a number of issues arising under the Pay Equity Law, which takes effect on January 1, 2019.

Oregon Governor Kate Brown signed a bill last month toughening the state’s already stringent data breach notification law, which will take effect on June 2, 2018. The most significant change for companies to be aware of is the requirement that affected consumers be notified no later than 45 days following discovery of a breach. Additionally, if a company offers free credit monitoring or identity theft protection services to the affected consumers, the company may not require the consumers to provide a credit or debit card number in order to receive such services.

A new Oregon law clarifies Oregon’s daily and weekly overtime laws and sets new maximum-hour limits for certain Oregon employers. The new statute, which Oregon Governor Kate Brown signed on August 8, 2017, requires most employers in the manufacturing sector to pay employees the greater of daily or weekly overtime if an employee works more than 10 hours in a single day and more than 40 hours total in the course of a single workweek. The law also sets a firm 55-hour weekly limit for most manufacturing-sector employees.

A new Oregon statute will require certain large employers to provide their Oregon employees with advance notice of their work schedules. The notice period will initially be 7 days starting next year before increasing to 14 days in 2020. “Predictive scheduling” requirements have been considered by legislatures in several states in recent years, and a number of cities have adopted predictive scheduling ordinances, but Oregon’s is the first to actually become a statewide law.

Oregon has become the first U.S. state to regulate employer scheduling practices in the food service, hospitality, and retail industries. The new law, S.B. 828, will take effect July 1, 2018.

Oregon Governor Kate Brown recently signed Senate Bill 299 into law, which makes some clarifications and changes to Oregon’s Paid Sick Time law, which took effect on January 1, 2016.

The Oregon Equal Pay Act of 2017 greatly extends pay equity protections to a variety of protected classes, prohibits employers from asking for applicants’ salary history, and expands existing remedies available to employees. House Bill 2005 also offers key protections and a safe harbor for employers.

On April 18, 2017, the Oregon Retirement Savings Board adopted final rules to implement the Oregon Retirement Savings Program (known as “OregonSaves”) codified at 170-090-0001 et seq. OregonSaves establishes a state-sponsored payroll deduction retirement savings plan requiring Oregon employers that do not offer retirement plans to their employees to make payroll deductions from their workers’ wages into the state’s program.

On March 9, 2017, the Multnomah County Circuit Court rejected the recent move by the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI) to require Oregon’s “manufacturing establishments” to double count daily and weekly overtime for their employees under ORS 653.216 and 652.020. In December 2016, BOLI made waves by making a sudden and unexplained change to its longstanding guidance on how to calculate daily and weekly overtime in these establishments. (See coverage here).

Between December 2016 and January 2017, the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI) instituted a significant change in its historic treatment of the interplay between two statutes that provide for daily and weekly overtime pay.

The City of Portland has issued administrative rules to the “Removing Barriers to Employment,” its ordinance aimed at removing job barriers for individuals with criminal records (Chapter 23.10 of the Portland Municipal Code). The Ordinance, which took effect on July 1, 2016, prohibits criminal history inquiries and background checks until a conditional offer of employment has been made.

On March 2, 2016, Oregon Governor Kate Brown signed the first geographically-tiered minimum wage hike in the country. Senate Bill 1532 also gives Oregon the nation’s current highest projected state-wide minimum wage.

Oregon law restricting employers from inquiring about a job applicant’s criminal background during the initial stages of the application process (i.e., before a job interview) went into effect on January 1, 2016. Beginning July 1, 2016, the City of Portland will take ban-the-box restrictions a few steps further, with its own ordinance.

Correctly classifying workers as either employees or independent contractors can be complicated and difficult. Multiple and different classification tests apply to a single working relationship – including, but not limited to, distinct tests for: (1) workers’ compensation coverage and premiums; (2) wage-and-hour and civil rights issues; (3) federal taxes; and (4) state payroll and unemployment taxes. These tests are often subjective, and at times can conflict. Additionally, misclassifying a worker as an independent contractor can result in costly audits, assessments of back taxes, and stiff penalties.

Oregon Sick Leave: Applicability of Requirements to Employees Occasionally Working in State Unclear

Beginning January 1, 2016, Oregon will join a growing number of cities and states mandating that employers provide certain classes of employees with sick leave benefits. For the specific requirements imposed by the new legislation, including when sick leave must be paid, see our article, Oregon Enacts Paid Sick Leave.