The Oregon Legislative
has only been in session for a few months and already there has been quite a bit of activity in the
labor law category.
Let's begin by reviewing
the widely anticipated bills such as Paid Sick Leave and an increased Minimum
Wage, which likely will end up on the Governor’s desk, then move on to the
unexpected.
To better understand the
direction of priorities in this session it is helpful to review the political
landscape. Most of Oregon did not miss that Governor Kitzhaber resigned and we
have a new governor, Kate Brown. Governor Brown is a Democrat and was formerly
the Secretary of State. In the state legislature, the Oregon Senate is made up
of 18 Democrats and 12 Republicans. The Oregon House is comprised of 35
Democrats and 25 Republicans. As the Democrats have solid majorities they are
better able to advance their agenda. Generally speaking this agenda, relating
to labor law, is focused on protections for employees and an increase in
employee benefits.
PAID SICK LEAVE
Paid sick leave is
something that will likely pass this session. Portland and Eugene both have
sick leave laws on the books and other cities have looked into their own
versions. Heading off the possibility of a patchwork of dissimilar laws in
multiple municipalities the legislature seems set to devise a single statewide
standard. Both the senate and the house are working on this matter and each has
its own version. In the Portland sick leave law, businesses with less than six
employees were not required to provide sick leave. The introduced bills for
consideration do not contain exemptions for small businesses. However one bill, Senate Bill 454, was amended to require sick
leave for all employees but would only require paid sick leave
from employers that have six or more employees.
As previously stated it
is reasonable to assume that some version of paid or unpaid sick leave will
soon be a required employee benefit. This is one area where Cardinal can
assist you in advising a course of action, tracking sick time taken or
implementing a comprehensive time and
attendance system with accruals.
Related to paid sick
time are:
These bills would give a
tax credit to employers providing paid sick leave.
MINIMUM WAGE
An increase in minimum
wage is another area where Democrats have been active nationwide at the state
and local levels. For example, in 2014 Seattle voted to gradually raise the
minimum wage to $15.00 per hour by 2021. There are several bills in the
legislature:
- House Bill 2008 – Gradually increases
the minimum wage.
- House Bill 2012 – Has the minimum wage
top out at $13.50 in 2017.
- House Bill 2009 – Increases the minimum
wage to $15.00 by 2018 .
Not unlike paid sick
leave, a bill was introduced on minimum wage to encourage a particular
behavior.
- House Bill 3271 – Employers would
qualify for a tax credit if they pay employees more than the minimum wage.
EQUAL WORK, EQUAL PAY
These bills complement
one another.
- House Bill 2006 – Deals with requiring
equal pay for both sexes in the equivalent position.
- House Bill 2007 – Prohibits employers
from disciplining employees who disclose their pay.
At first glance these do
not seem very controversial. However in reading the fine print it could set up
scenarios that create animosity. For example, would an employee be able to
request an investigation and then once it has been concluded do a record request
even if the conclusion was that there is no evidence of wrongdoing? Then the
employee would have access to all of their coworker's rates of pay. A fifty
cents an hour difference between coworkers who are members of the same sex can
still cause friction. This is often the argument for keeping employee rates of
pay private. But maybe conventional wisdom is wrong and transparency is better
in the long term. If these bills pass expect scrutiny in how they are
implemented via Oregon Administrative Rules.
TIMELY PAYMENT OF WAGES
Non-payment of wages
goes against American’s sense of what is right. To this end there are several
bills addressing various iterations of this wrongdoing.
- House Bill 2212 – Would impose civil
penalties on the employer for not paying wages on time.
- House Bill 2387 – Allows the Bureau of
Labor and Industries to impose a bond on employers that fail to pay
properly pay wages.
- House Bill 2923 – Creates a task force
looking into employee compensation in Oregon.
- House Bill 3083 – This bill would help
define wages for wage claims.
- House Bill 3113 – Requires an employer
wage bond in certain wage claim cases.
HIRE A VETERAN
- House Bill 2839 – Income tax credits
for employing veterans.
FLEXIBLE AND/OR
PREDICTABLE WORK SCHEDULE
- House Bill 2010 – This bill is aimed
solely at the retail, hospitality and food service industries and would
require employers to provide a predictable and/or flexible work
schedule.
There are several
provisions in this law. Employers would be required to provide schedules two
weeks in advance. Employees are protected if they ask for changes in their
schedule and employers must, “…engage in a timely, interactive process with the
employee to attempt to agree upon a mutually acceptable work schedule.” There
are also rules on calling in employees to work on their day off. If an employer
calls in an employee because they think they are going to be busy, the employer
will have to pay the employee an extra hour of time. Complying with this is
going to require considerable documentation. This is in area where a time and
attendance system would be advisable. Cardinal can help you implement such a
system. Please visit our time
and attendance webpage for
more details.
VOLUNTARY COMPLIANCE
WITH E-VERIFY
- House Bill 2043 – Uses employee tax deductions
as an incentive for employers to use the federal E-Verify program.
OREGON EMPLOYEE LEAVE
- House Bill 2007 – Reduces Oregon Family
Leave Act eligibility hours from 25 to 24. It is unclear what spurred a
house representative to ask for the threshold to be dropped by one hour.
- House Bill 2646 – Requires employers to
let employees attend specific school related functions.
BAN THE BOX ON STEROIDS
There has been pressure
to require employers not to ask about felony convictions on the initial
application. This is referred to as ‘Ban the Box’.
The concern being
addressed is that felons do not get past the initial screening when applying
for a job. Portland recently implemented such a policy for internal positions.
These proposed laws go beyond the initial Ban the Box lobby of requiring
employers not to initially ask about felonies. There are additional
requirements. Some of the required steps include giving a conditional letter of
employment, then running a background check, denoting the types of felonies
that apply in a specific position and if any adverse action is taken the
employee would have 4 or 10 days to clear that up and the employer would have
to hold the job open during that time. Some parts of these proposed
requirements are best practices which Cardinal already
offers.
FORCED FALSEHOODS
- House Bill 3137 – Would stop employers
being able to force employees to sign false documents.
One would think that
this is already illegal. Even if it is not against the law (which it should be)
it is like requiring bank robber to get a license. It is reasonable to
conclude that if an employer is falsifying documents they would have no
scruples about forcing their employees to sign off on them.
Cardinal will endeavor
to keep you updated as this session progresses. When there is movement on these
bills and as laws go into effect we will discuss strategies for compliance. Or
stay tuned by visiting our compliance section here.
Arin J. Carmack
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