Changes To Paid Leave Oregon (aka Oregon Paid Family and Medical Leave) and OFLA Beginning July 1, 2024
Effective July 1, 2024, Oregon has amended its laws related to Paid Leave Oregon (PLO) and the Oregon Family Leave Act (OFLA).
What types of leave will still be available under OFLA?
Effective July 1, 2024, note that OFLA will no longer include family leave (aka parental bonding leave), an employee’s own serious health condition leave, or leave to care for a family member with a serious health condition. Instead, family leave and serious health condition leave will be solely covered under Paid Leave Oregon.
OFLA leave will only be available for the following reasons*:
Sick child leave;
To care for a child of the employee or spouse or domestic partner whose school or childcare provider has been closed in conjunction with a declared public health emergency;
Bereavement leave up to a total of four weeks per year; and
Pregnancy-related disability leave (this leave is in addition to other leave available under OFLA and Paid Leave Oregon).
What are the other impacts of this amendment on the administration of OFLA effective July 1, 2024?
OFLA and Paid Leave Oregon Leave Are No Longer Concurrent - Leave taken under OFLA is in addition to, and may not be taken concurrently with, any leave taken under Paid Leave Oregon.
OFLA Definition of “One-Year Period” Changes July 1, 2024 - the OFLA “one-year period” will be measured in the same way as Paid Leave Oregon leave is measured, i.e., a rolling forward one-year period means a period of 52 consecutive weeks beginning on the Sunday immediately preceding the date on which family leave commences.
OFLA Leave Entitlement – based on the industry’s understanding of the responses received from the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries (“BOLI”), due to the change to Rolling Forward-Sunday method, employees are entitled to a fresh bank of time as of 7/1/2024.
OFLA Bereavement Leave Limited to Maximum of 4 Weeks Instead of 12 Weeks - OFLA eligible employees may take up to two weeks of family bereavement leave for each family member’s death, not to exceed a total of four weeks in a one-year period. OFLA bereavement leave must be completed within 60 days of the date on which the employee receives notice of the death of the family member. Bereavement leave is not available under Paid Leave Oregon.
Sick Child Leave Reasons Expanded under OFLA – Currently, this leave is available(1) to care for a sick child of the employee or spouse or domestic partner who does not have a serious health condition but requires home care and (2) to care for a child of the employee or spouse or domestic partner whose school or childcare provider has been closed in conjunction with a declared public health emergency. OFLA sick child leave is expanding to include home care of a child even if the child needs home care for a serious health condition.
Leave to Effectuate the Legal Process Required for Child’s Foster Care Placement or Adoption - A temporary amendment to OFLA will provide an eligible employee a total of 2 weeks of OFLA leave to effectuate the legal process required for placement of a foster child or the adoption of a child. This temporary amendment will end on December 31, 2024.
What are the impacts of this amendment on the administration of PLO?
Effective July 1, 2024:
As mentioned above, OFLA and Paid Leave Oregon Leave Are No Longer Concurrent. No changes were made to Paid Leave Oregon’s concurrence with leave taken under the FMLA for the same purpose.
Changes were made to the Coordination of PLO with Employer-Provided Paid Time Off.
Employees are now entitled to use accrued paid leave offered by their employer in addition to PLO to the extent the total combination of benefits do not exceed full wage replacement.
Employer may permit employees to use accrued paid leave in addition to PLO in an amount that causes employees to exceed full wage replacement.
Subject to the terms of any agreement or collective bargaining agreement, employers have the right to dictate the order in which accrued paid leave is used by an employee on PLO when more than one type is available.
Note: Accrued Paid Leave means accrued paid sick leave, accrued paid vacation leave, or any other paid leave offered by the employer.
Effective January 1, 2025, benefits will be available under Paid Leave Oregon to effectuate the legal process required for foster child placement or child adoption. As mentioned above, prior to January 1, 2025, unpaid leave for this reason is temporarily available under OFLA from July 1, 2024 through December 31, 2024.
Other – Changes to Predictive Scheduling
Effective July 1, 2024, Oregon’s predictive scheduling law is amended. Should a covered employer have less than fourteen (14) days' notice that an employee on an OFLA or PLO leave will be returning to work, the employer may change the schedule of the temporarily assigned employee covering shifts for the returning employee without incurring an obligation to pay additional compensation.
Employers may wish to consider reviewing their OFLA, PLO, and predictive scheduling policies in light of these changes. Guardian’s PLO (aka Oregon Paid Family and Medical Leave) and OFLA administration will conform to the requirements of this law. *NOTE: Guidance on administration of approved leaves that will no longer qualify as a leave reason under OFLA as of July 1st has not been provided by BOLI. Updates will be provided as needed when this information is received from the state.
* All information above can be found on https://www.oregon.gov/boli/workers/pages/oregon-family-leave.aspx, unless otherwise noted.