Barran Liebman Alert: Portland Oregon Area Employers Are Now Required to Provide up to 40 Hours of Sick Time to Employees

Earlier this year, we reported on Portland Commissioner Amanda Fritz's proposal to change Portland's City Code by mandating that employers provide sick leave to employees. Well, it happened. On March 13, 2013, the city council unanimously voted to approve the new ordinance. Portland now joins ranks with cities like Seattle, San Francisco and Washington D.C., which require employers to provide mandatory sick leave to employees. The approved version did have some changes from the original proposal. For instance, the original proposal allowed employees to start taking sick leave after they had accrued eight hours; the passed ordinance provides that employees many not take sick leave during the first 90 days of employment. The main features that made the ordinance attractive to advocate groups and drew criticism from business groups remain firmly in place, including up to 40 hours of paid sick leave where the employer has six or more employees, up to 40 hours of non-paid sick leave where the employer has five or fewer employees, and burdensome paperwork and tracking requirements. The city will now begin drafting the specific regulations that will take effect January 1, 2014. We will bring you updates as the regulations are drafted into the city code.

You can find the adopted ordinance here.

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Electronic Alerts are written by Barran Liebman attorneys for their clients and friends. Alerts are not intended as legal advice, but as employment law, labor law, and employee benefits announcements.

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