Articles Discussing Workplace Issues In Portland, Oregon.

On November 25, 2015, Portland’s City Council unanimously passed new rules that will significantly affect an employer’s ability to obtain and use criminal history information in the hiring process. With these new rules, Portland joins the growing number of other cities, counties and states across the country, including Oregon,1 that have enacted similar “ban-the-box” legislation in recent years.2

On November 1, 2013, the City Attorney’s office published Administrative Rules to help implement Portland’s new Sick Leave Ordinance. Under the ordinance, beginning January 1, 2014, private-sector employers doing business in Portland that have six or more employees will be required to provide qualifying employees with a minimum of one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours of work performed by the employee. Employers doing business in Portland that have five or fewer employees will be required to provide unpaid sick leave for every 30 hours of work performed by qualifying employees.

Effective January 1, 2014, all employers must provide sick leave to employees who work part-time, full-time, temporarily, or just occasionally within the City of Portland, Oregon. Employers with more than five employees in any location must provide up to 40 hours of paid sick leave to employees working in Portland. Covered employees can include delivery drivers, couriers and outside sales personnel who occasionally travel to the City, as well as telecommuting workers who are located in Portland. Employers also must meet specific recordkeeping, reporting, usage, and notice requirements. (See our article, Portland, Oregon, Mandates Employer-Provided Sick Leave, for more information.)

Following examples set by San Francisco to the South, and Seattle to the North, the Portland, Oregon, City Council unanimously passed Portland’s new sick leave ordinance. The new law imposes significant burdens on employers in addition to mandating up to 40 hours of annual sick leave. The new sick leave entitlements apply to all private-sector employers, regardless of location of the employer’s primary place of business. The law goes into effect January 1, 2014.