Military Spousal Leave - Or. Rev. Stat. § 659A.093

Covered Employers: Any employer with 25 or more employees in the state of Oregon for each working day during 20 or more calendar work weeks in the current or preceding calendar year.

Employee Eligibility: Any employee who is employed for an average of 20 hours or more a week. The definition of "employee" includes all individuals employed at any site owned or operated by an employer, but does not include independent contractors.

Entitlement: An eligible employee may take 14 days of unpaid leave for the spouse or domestic partner of a member of the Armed Forces of the United States, the National Guard, or the military reserve forces who has been notified of an impending call or order to active duty or who has been deployed for each deployment during a period of military conflict. Leave may be taken after the military spouse has been notified of an impending call or order to active duty and before deployment and when the military spouse is on leave from deployment.

Employer Notice: Not specified

Employee Notice: Employee must provide notice of the intention to take leave within five business days of receiving official notice of an impending call or order to active duty or of a leave from deployment. An eligible employee's notice of intention to take leave under this law must follow the covered employer's known, customary, and uniformly applied procedures for requesting any kind of leave. A covered employer may provide a leave request form.

Obligation to Provide Certifications or Documents Supporting Need for Leave: The employer may require in writing that the eligible employee provide a photocopy of the service member's orders to verify that the leave is for permissible purposes. The employee must provide the required photocopy of the service member's orders within a reasonable time after receiving the employer's written request. The covered employer may provisionally designate an absence as covered leave until any requested photocopy of the service member's orders is received.

Paid?: No. However, an employee may choose to substitute any accrued paid sick leave, personal leave, vacation leave, or any other paid leave that is offered in lieu of vacation leave to which the employee is entitled. Paid sick leave does not include disability insurance or disability benefits

Benefits: OFLA does not require benefits be maintained during leave. However, if the employer maintains benefits for employees on other types of leave (e.g., personal leave of absence), the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries takes the position that it is discriminatory to deny benefits to an employee simply because they are using leave under OFLA. If an employer chooses to provide benefits, benefits must be provided at the same payment terms that applied before the leave. In any case, all benefits must be reinstated at prior levels immediately upon the employee´s return. An employer that elects to continue other insurance during an OFLA leave may require the employee to pay the share the employee paid prior to the leave.

Reinstatement: Employee returning from leave is entitled to same rights to job restoration as provided in Oregon's Family Leave law. That law provides that upon return from family leave, employees must be restored to their former positions if the position still exists, regardless of whether the employer filled the position with a replacement worker during the leave. If an employee's original position has been eliminated, the employer must restore the employee to any available position with equivalent employment benefits, pay, and other terms and conditions of employment. If an equivalent position is unavailable at a returning employee's job site, the employee can be offered an equivalent position at a job site located within 20 miles of the former work site. An employee is not entitled to reinstatement to his or her former position if he or she would have been bumped even if OFLA leave were not taken. If an employee provides unequivocal notice of his/her intent not to return from OFLA leave, the employee may complete the leave (if the need still exists), but the employer is under no obligation to hold the employee's position open or to restore the employee to his or her prior position or benefits except as required by COBRA.

Relationship with Other Leave: Leave taken under this section shall be included in the total amount of leave authorized under Oregon's Family/
Medical Leave law, however, an eligible employee need not be eligible for protected leave under the OFLA in order to take protected leave under the OMFLA. To the extent the employee's need for leave under this law is also covered by the Qualifying Exigency entitlements of the FMLA, the leaves may run concurrently.

Other important notes: This law was not amended when same gender marriage became legal, and wording can be found that states "same gender domestic partner". Spouse should always be used regardless of gender. Recommendations would be to offer the leave to all domestic partners regardless of gender, if the business continues to offer to domestic partners.

Absence Specifications