Oregon Family Leave & Paid Leave

Oregon passed significant updates to the Oregon Family Leave Act (OFLA) and Paid Leave Oregon (PLO) in 2024. The updates included the following:d

Entitlement Period: OFLA mandates a 12-month Sunday-forward to align with PLO. OFLA entitlements are based on a new bank of time starting 7/1/24.
Entitlement: OFLA will now provide up to 12 weeks except as noted below:
1. Bereavement, Sick Child, and School and Childcare Closures for public health emergencies absence reasons will all share an overall entitlement of 12 weeks.
2. Bereavement will now support an entitlement maximum of 4 weeks per Sunday Forward period, and 2 weeks per case. This usage will burn from the overall 12-week shared entitlement.
3. Pregnancy Disability (12 weeks in addition to other leave);
4. Adoption/Fostercare temporarily provides up to 2 additional weeks until 1/1/25 for time prior to the placement date.
  1. This facilitates the legal process for Adoption/Foster Care leave.
  2. PLO will expand adoption/foster care benefits as of 1/1/25 to cover pre and post placement leave.
5. OFLA will no longer cover parental/bonding leave or serious health conditions for employees or their covered family members.
Interaction with Other Laws: OFLA leave may not be taken concurrently with leave under PLO.
Wage Integration: Employees may decide if they want to use accrued paid time off to supplement PLO up to their regular pay. Employers may allow employees to receive more than their regular pay through combined wages.

New Cases

For Cases submitted after 7/1/2024:

Cases will be entitled and eligible for policies as described in the Key Changes section.
The Oregon Family Leave policy (OR-OFLA) and Paid Leave Oregon (PLO) policies will apply for cases with covered absence reasons.
Case managers will receive an error message on the case if both PLO and OFLA are eligible until:
1. There are adjudicated such that there are no overlapping approved date ranges
2. One or both policies are denied

In-flight Cases

In-flight cases are cases that are open as of July 1, 2024. They may have leave that has concluded before 7/1 and/or leave that starts after 7/1. Employee should be notified of changes.

Reason	Actions for In-flight Cases
Employee Health Condition	Deny the old OFLA policy on the case as of 7/1/2024. Coverage continues under PLO.
Family Health Condition	Deny the old OFLA policy on the case as of 7/1/2024. Coverage continues under PLO.
Pregnancy / Maternity	If the employee is out for Bonding from 7/1 forward, deny OFLA as it is no longer applicable. If continuing under OFLA and not PLO, add the new OR-OFLA policy with an effective date of 7/1 and adjudicate as needed. If continuing under PLO and not OFLA, no action needed.
Bonding	Deny the old OFLA policy on the case as of 7/1/2024. Coverage continues under PLO.
Bereavement	Deny the old OFLA policy on the case as of 7/1/2024. Add the new OR-OFLA policy to the case with an effective date of 7/1 and adjudicate as needed.
Sick Child	Deny the old OFLA policy on the case as of 7/1/2024. Add the new OR-OFLA policy to the case with an effective date of 7/1 and adjudicate as needed.
Care of Child	Deny the old OFLA policy on the case as of 7/1/2024. Add the new OR-OFLA policy to the case with an effective date of 7/1 and adjudicate as needed.
Adoption / Foster Care	For post-placement leave, deny the old OFLA policy on the case as of 7/1/2024. For pre-placement leave, add the new OR-OFLA policy with an effective date of 7/1.

Closed Cases

No changes are made to closed cases

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: If an employee has a sick child with a serious health condition, should they take leave under Sick Child (OFLA) or Family Health Condition (PLO)?

For employees with a sick child, they can choose between Family Health Condition (PLO) and Sick Child Absence (OFLA), provided the case is eligible for both. This will likely require a conversation with the employee to determine if they prefer paid benefits or job protection.

Q: How do I align my FMLA period to my Oregon Family Leave period so both are Sunday Forward periods?

Create a New FMLA - Oregon Policy:
- Navigate to Configurations > Policies.
- Select the option to create a new policy.
- Set up the new policy so it mirrors your existing FMLA configuration.
- Assign the work state to Oregon.
- Set the entitlement period to "Sunday Forward."
- Note that when this new policy is assigned to cases, the case will have a new entitlement bank of time.
Update the Existing FMLA Policy:
- Customize the existing FMLA policy by adding a new global rule.
- This rule should exclude employees whose work state is Oregon.
Notify Employees of the Change:
- Employers must provide employees with a 60-day notice before changing the entitlement period.
- During this 60-day window, employer must use the period type that is more beneficial to the employee.