Oregon

Effective January 1, 2014, Oregon will become the first state to require certain private sector employers to provide bereavement leave to their covered employees. The new law amends the Oregon Family Leave Act (OFLA) and applies to employers and employees already covered under that Act.

Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber on June 13, 2013 signed into law a bill extending employment discrimination protection to interns. The new law grants unpaid interns legal recourse under Oregon's employment discrimination laws for workplace violations including sexual harassment, unlawful discriminati

On May 22, 2013, Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber signed into law House Bill 2654, making Oregon the tenth state to enact a law prohibiting employers from accessing employees' private social media sites. The new law, which becomes effective January 1, 2014, makes it an unlawful employment practice for

On March 13, 2013, Portland’s City Council unanimously passed a sick leave ordinance that, effective January 8, 2014, will require private sector businesses with six or more employees to provide up to 40 hours per year of paid time off for sick leave. Businesses with less than six employees will be

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 l

The City of Portland is considering an ordinance mandating that protected sick leave rights be extended to virtually all employees in the City. If passed, Oregon private-sector employers would join those in San Francisco, California, and Washington, D.C., in being required to provide employees with

Businesses constantly are challenged with correctly classifying workers as either employees or independent contractors. Of course, employers have good reason to be vigilant: misclassification can result in costly audits, assessments of back taxes, and stiff penalties. Under the Oregon independent co

Since January 1, 2008, Oregon employers electing to use binding arbitration agreements with new employees have been required to give two weeks’ written notice of the arbitration requirement before hiring a new employee. For current employees, employers have been required to obtain an employee’s