Protected Leave
Protected Leave: Qualifications & Eligibility
You must meet the following requirements to qualify for protected leave:
You must meet the minimum "hours worked" qualifications; and
You must not have exhausted your leave entitlement under FMLA and/or OFLA within the 12 months immediately preceding the onset of your leave; and
You must take leave for an eligible reason.
If you take time intermittently or work a reduced work schedule, you must be able to perform the essential functions of your job while you are at work. If you are unable to perform your job responsibilities while at work, you may be required to take continuous leave.
Leave Entitlement
With some exceptions, employees are entitled to 12 weeks within a one-year period. That exhausts the FMLA leave entitlement except for military caregivers leave, which can extend to 26 weeks in one leave year. Under OFLA, women taking any pregnancy disability leave are allowed an additional 12 weeks for any OFLA purpose. Either parent who has taken a full 12 weeks of parental leave (e.g., to care for a newborn, newly adopted child or newly placed foster child) are also entitled to take up to an additional 12 weeks leave to care for a child with a non-serious health condition requiring home care.
Eligible Reasons Under FMLA
Although there are a few exceptions, FMLA generally provides 12 weeks of unpaid leave per year for the following purposes:
For the birth, adoption or foster care placement of a child (parental leave).
To care for a family member with a serious health condition or the employee´s own serious health condition (serious health condition leave).
For pregnancy disability or prenatal care (pregnancy disability leave).
To care for a seriously ill or injured service member or veteran (26 weeks).
A “qualifying exigency” arising out of the foreign deployment of the employee's spouse, son, daughter, or parent.
Eligible Reasons Under OFLA
Beginning July 1, 2024, OFLA provides protected time off to eligible employees for the following reasons:
Sick child leave for the employee to care for their child because of an injury, illness, or condition that requires home care. Sick child leave includes both serious or non-serious health conditions (in addition to family leave for a child's serious health condition under Paid Leave Oregon). Sick child leave is also available for school and childcare closures in conjunction with public health emergencies
Bereavement leave is available within 60 days after an employee learns of the death of a family member
Pregnancy disability for the employee’s own pregnancy related incapacity before or after the birth of the child or for prenatal care
Military family leave — up to 14 days per deployment — continues to count against available OFLA.
Note: that for purposes of sick child leave, the child must be either under the age of 18 or an adult dependent child substantially limited by a physical or mental impairment.
Bereavement Leave
Employees may take leave to attend a funeral (or alternative ceremony), to make arrangements necessitated by the death of a family member, or simply to grieve the death of a family member.
Oregon Family Leave Act (OFLA) provides up to two weeks of leave with job and benefit protections, to attend the funeral or alternative to a funeral of a family member, to make arrangements necessitated by the death of a family member, or to grieve the death of a family member. Bereavement leave must be completed within 60 days from the date knowledge or death.
Military Leave
Exigency Leave
Exigency leave allows eligible employees to take up to 12 work weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave in a 12-month period for a “qualifying exigency” arising out of the foreign deployment of the employee’s spouse, son, daughter, or parent. FMLA leave for this purpose is called qualifying exigency leave.
Military Caregiver Leave
Military caregiver leave allows an eligible employee who is the spouse, son, daughter, parent, or next of kin of a covered service member with a serious injury or illness to take up to a total of 26 workweeks of unpaid leave during a “single 12-month period” to provide care for the service member.
Oregon Military Family Leave Act (OMFLA)
The Oregon Military Family Leave Act (OMFLA) allows an employee to take up to 14 days of leave per deployment to spend time with a spouse or same-gender domestic partner who is in the military and has been notified of an impending call or order to active duty or who has been deployed during a period of military conflict.
Safe Leave
Employees who are victims of domestic violence, harassment, sexual assault, stalking or bias, or whose minor child or dependent is a victim, are eligible for leave as a reasonable safety accommodation for reasons such as the following:
To seek legal or law enforcement assistance or remedies to ensure the health and safety of the employee or the employee’s minor child or dependent, including preparing for and participating in protective order proceedings or other civil or criminal legal proceedings related to domestic violence, harassment, sexual assault, bias or stalking;
To seek medical treatment for or to recover from injuries caused by domestic violence, sexual assault, harassment, stalking, or the commission of a bias crime, involving the eligible employee or the employee’s minor child or dependent.
To obtain, or to assist a minor child or dependent in obtaining, counseling from a licensed mental health professional related to an experience of domestic violence, harassment, sexual assault, bias or stalking;
To obtain services from a victim services provider for the eligible employee or the employee’s minor child or dependent; or
To relocate or take steps to secure an existing home to ensure the health and safety of the eligible employee or the employee’s minor child or dependent.