Portland's City Attorney's Office Releases Proposed Sick Leave Rules for Comment

Author: Melissa Burdorf, XpertHR Legal Editor

August 19, 2013


As promised, Portland's City Attorney's Office has published proposed administrative rules to implement the City's new Sick Leave Ordinance. Employers with employees who work in Portland, that have specific concerns regarding the ordinance, or that oppose the rules, should:

  • Carefully read over the proposed rules;
  • Attend the public meeting scheduled for August 22, 2013, from 6:30pm to 8pm in the Portland Building (1220 SW 5th Avenue, Room C, 2nd Floor). At the meeting the City will review the proposed rules and will provide a forum to answer questions and comments; and
  • Send any comments regarding concerns that remain unanswered after review of the rules and/or attendance at the meeting to the City's Attorney's Office by email or regular mail (addressed to: City Attorney's Office, Attn: SLAR Comments, 1221 SW 4th Avenue, Ste. 430, Portland, OR 97204).

Employers should keep in mind that the deadline for submitting written comments is September 6, 2013. The City will not consider any written comments received after that date. Once the City reviews all timely submitted comments, it may revise or modify the rules. The final rules will be published on or before November 1, 2013, with an effective date of no later than January 1, 2014.

As previously reported, the Sick Leave Ordinance requires all private-sector employers with six or more employees to provide up to 40 hours of paid sick leave per year to employees. Employers with five or less employees must provide up to 40 hours of unpaid sick leave. In both cases, employees must work at least 240 hours in a calendar year within Portland city limits. Employees will accrue one hour of sick leave for every 30 hours worked within the Portland city limits (to a maximum of 40 hours) and can use such leave for a variety of reasons, such as:

  • For an employee's personal mental or physical illness, including pregnancy, childbirth and preventive medical care;
  • To care for a family member with an illness, injury or medical appointment;
  • If the employee's place of business closes for a public health emergency, or to care for a child whose school or day care closes for a similar reason; and
  • For certain reasons related to domestic violence, harassment, sexual assault or stalking.

When asked about the proposed rules, Amy Angel, an experienced employment attorney from Barran Liebman's, Portland, Oregon office, and a contributing author for XpertHR said:

The City Attorney's office deserves credit for trying to answer questions left open by the language of the Ordinance, including fluctuation number of employees, order of use of paid versus unpaid sick leave and defining what is and is not working in the City. Nonetheless, complying with the Ordinance and the rules will be challenging for most employers, even those who currently offer generous sick leave for their employees.

XpertHR will continue to publish updates on the implementation of the final rules.