Oregon has passed groundbreaking leave laws that create a great deal of confusion for HR professionals, employers, and even employment law professionals. With the signing of Senate Bill 999 (SB 999) by Governor Kotek on June 7, 2023, one of the unique requirements is the adoption of a uniform method for calculating employee leave year balances for Oregon employers. Under this bill, Oregon employers subject to Paid Leave Oregon (PLO) and Oregon Family Leave Act (OFLA) will be required to use the 12-month measured forward method for calculating employee leave balances. This requirement is effective September 3, 2023, for PLO and July 1, 2024, for OFLA. Employers are encouraged to understand how this will impact leave administration and proactively update leave policy to ensure compliance.

What is Oregon’s 12-month measured forward leave year?

Oregon state law now requires that the leave period runs for 52 consecutive weeks, beginning on the Sunday immediately preceding the date for which the qualifying leave begins.

Example: For an employee starting leave on Monday, July 1, 2024, the “leave year” would start on Sunday, June 30, 2024. The employee would be eligible for 12+ weeks of PLO leave between Sunday, June 30, 2024, and Saturday, June 28, 2025.

It’s important to understand that this leave year tracking method differs from the 12-month period measured forward defined in the Family & Medical Leave Act (FMLA), which starts the measurement period on the day of first leave usage (not the Sunday preceding).

Update your leave policies

Organizations are using this as an opportunity to proactively update their leave policies and tracking method to align the leave year rule for both PLO and OFLA requirements. Employers must give employees 60 days’ notice before adopting the new method for OFLA. It’s also important to note that employees should retain the full leave and job protection entitlements under whichever method affords the most generous benefit.

When adopting a new leave tracking method, employers should:

1. Perform an analysis of their current active leaves.
2. Determine the entitlements under the current leave tracking method and the proposed leave tracking method.
3. Ensure your HR team is properly trained to apply updated policies and administer employee leave.
4. Plan a communication rollout and arrange proactive support for employees who may have questions about how the change will impact their leave.

Decide how broadly you will apply the Oregon leave year rules

Employers need to decide how broadly they will apply the Oregon-specific leave year rules outside of PLO and OFLA leave. To further align leave policy and simplify administration, consider adopting this method for FMLA. Multi-state employers will have additional factors to consider regarding how they apply these policy updates across state lines. Some organizations may employ team members in a state that requires the use of a different leave year, such as a 12-month rolling backward or a calendar year.

Example: The Wisconsin Family & Medical Leave Act requires the use of the calendar year method for state-protected leave. Therefore, employers with workers in both Oregon and Wisconsin will be required to use different methods for tracking protected employee leave in each state.

What does this mean for Stiira users?

In short, we have Oregon employers covered. In our latest set of feature updates, we incorporated new functionality to support this new leave year requirement. Our customers can establish the Oregon-specific measured forward leave year for all leaves designated under PLO and OFLA, with built-in logic to ensure usage is accurately tracked and associated hour banks follow the correct draw period for protected leave. Administrators can leverage configuration options for applying leave year rule policies to a specific federal or state regulation.