Leaves in Oregon – impact of SB 1515!

Oregon employers often navigate a few overlapping laws when dealing with employee leaves, whether it be the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), the Oregon Family Leave Act (OFLA), and/or the Paid Leave Oregon (PLO) program through Oregon state. It can be tricky to determine how the laws interact, whether they run concurrently or consecutively, and what benefits or leave protections apply to any given situation. (Note, PLO is also referred to as Paid Family Medical Leave Insurance, PFMLI, or PFML. For purposes of this article, we will use the PLO term). 

Enter Senate Bill 1515! 

On Friday March 22, 2024, Governor Kotek signed SB 1515, which appears to be intended to simplify how OFLA and PLO interact. Will it do what it is intended to do? We shall see! For now, let’s unpack some of the details: 

Leave Reasons

Both OFLA and PLO outline specific reasons an employee can take covered leave, many of which run concurrently. SB 1515 has significant impacts on OFLA leave reasons, minor tweaks to PLO leave reasons, and (might want to sit down for this one) effectively ends most concurrent OFLA and PLO leaves:

• OFLA’s leave reasons are now limited to only three reasons as follows: 1) pregnancy disability, 2) leave related to a child’s illness (regardless of whether the condition qualifies as a serious health condition) or school closure; and 3) bereavement (limited to two weeks per family member and four total weeks per year).
• PLO’s leave reasons remain the same, except that “sick child” leave only applies if the child has a serious health condition. As a reminder, PLO reasons also include parental leave, serious health condition leave, and pregnancy disability. 

Leave Maximums

With these changes, PLO and OFLA have mostly separate leave reasons. That means, you could have an employee out for 12 (or more) weeks for a qualifying PLO reason, and another 12 (or more) weeks for a qualifying OFLA reason.

The takeaway here is to carefully assess each leave request/reason separately to ensure proper time is granted. 

(Oh, and friendly reminder – while OFLA and PLO may not run concurrently, FMLA likely will!) 

Use of PTO, Vacation and/or Sick Leave

It remains the employee’s option to use PTO, paid vacation, or paid sick leave during OFLA or PLO. SB 1515 now allows employers to cap use of such benefits while on PLO so the employee does not exceed 100% wage replacement. To help employers calculate the cap, Oregon’s Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI) and the Oregon Employment Department (OED) are responsible for determining how to notify Oregon employers regarding the amount of PLO benefits their employees are receiving.

Other Notable Changes

• For employees taking pregnancy disability under OFLA, advanced notice is not required.
• PLO will be incorporating leave for foster care and adoption as of January 1, 2025. As a transition phase, between July 1, 2024 and December 31, 2024, a two week leave for those purposes is permitted under OFLA.
• Should an employee provide less than 14 days’ notice of their need for (or return from) leave under PLO or OFLA, large retail, hospitality, and food service employers will have relief from predictive scheduling penalties.

Benefit Year Reminder

Don’t forget, back in 2023, Oregon required employers to adopt a rolling forward year, as of July 1, 2024, when calculating an employee’s benefit year. As a reminder, the rolling forward year is the 52-week period beginning on the Sunday before leave begins.

Effective Date of Changes

In looking at SB 1515, it states “this 2024 Act takes effect on its passage.” In researching further we see Oregon’s BOLI site reporting “expect additional guidance and rulemaking as we move toward July 1, the effective date for most SB 1515 changes.” This is supported by Section 22 of SB 1515 which states Section 12 and 13 of the Act, and several amendments, become operative on July 1, 2024. 

What Now?

First, deep breaths! 

With the Act “taking effect” as of March 22nd, and with the “effective date of most SB 1515 changes” to be July 1st, it’s time for Oregon employers to review and update their leave policies and practices. HRT will be working with existing clients to help; if you’re not an existing client and would like help, please reach out. 

Your HRT Northwest Team

Seattle: (253) 642-7372 | info@hrtnorthwest.com

This Update is not a full overview of all recent or upcoming legal changes. HRT Northwest is staffed by professionals in the field of Human Resources and business management. We are glad to help with your HR needs; however, we do not offer legal advice and our services are not a substitute for the help of a qualified attorney.