Oregon Bereavement Leave Law
Beginning January 1, 2014, certain employees working in Oregon are entitled to take bereavement leave under Oregon’s Family Leave Act. According to the law, employers with 25 or more employees must allow qualifying employees to take bereavement leave due to the death of a family member. The details of Oregon’s bereavement leave requirements are as follows:
- Covered employees
- 25 or more employees
- Permitted uses
- Family members
- Amount of leave permitted
- Paid vs. unpaid leave
- Notice requirements – Employees
- Notice requirements – Employers
- Multiple employees who are family members
Covered employees
An employee is eligible to take bereavement leave under Oregon’s Family Leave Act if they have:
- worked for the employer for 180 days or more, and
- worked on average 25 or more hours per week for the 180 days prior to the date the bereavement leave is first taken.
25 or more employees
An employer is considered to employ 25 or more employees if it employs at least 25 people:
- for each working day during 20 or more calendar workweeks in the year the leave is taken, or
- in the year immediately before the date the leave would begin.
Permitted uses
Bereavement leave for purpose of the Family Leave Act is defined as leave taken to deal with the death of a family member by:
- attending the funeral or funeral-alternative;
- making arrangements associated with the family member’s death; or
- grieving.
Family members
The term “family member” is defined to include:
- a spouse
- a same-gender domestic partner
- a parent, including:
- a custodial parent
- a non-custodial parent
- a biological parent
- an adoptive parent
- a foster parent
- a parent-in-law
- a parent of a same-gender domestic partner
- a person with whom the employee was or is in a relationship of in loco parentis
- a child, including
- a biological child
- an adopted child
- a step child
- a foster child
- a child of a same-gender domestic partner
- grandparent
- grandchild
ORS 659A.150(4); OAR 839-009-0210(2); OAR 839-009-0210(7)
Amount of leave permitted
Oregon’s Family Leave Act permits employees to take up to a total of 12 weeks of leave in a one-year period for all covered purposes. This 12 week total includes any time taken for bereavement leave. ORS 659A.162
When taking bereavement leave, employees are allowed take up to 2 weeks of leave for each family member that dies and the bereavement leave taken must be completed within 60 days of the death of the family member. ORS 659A.162(2)(a); ORS 659A.159(2)(b) Additionally, when multiple family members dies at the same time, an employer may not require an employee to take bereavement leave for all deceased family members at the same time. ORS 659A.162(2)(c) Employees are entitled to take separately up to 2 weeks of leave for each deceased family member.
Paid vs. unpaid leave
Employers are not required to pay employees for bereavement leave. They may adopt policies providing for paid bereavement leave. OAR 839-009-0280(1) Additionally, employees are permitted to use leave accrued pursuant to any vacation, sick, personal, or other paid leave policy maintained by the employer when taking bereavement leave under the Oregon Family Leave Act. OAR 839-009-0280(2)
Employers may require employees taking bereavement leave to take paid leave accrued pursuant to any vacation, sick, personal, or other paid leave policy and may dictate the order in which such paid leave is to be used, if:
- it provides the employee written notice prior to the absence that accrued paid leave will be used during the leave period, or
- within five days after an employee has commenced leave that was unforeseeable, it provides the employee written notice of the requirement that accrued leave be used.
Notice requirements – Employees
Employees are not required to provide their employers notice before taking bereavement leave; however, employees must provide oral notice to their employer within 24 hours of beginning the leave. ORS 659A.165(2)(d) & (3) This notice may be provided by a person other than the absent employee. ORS 659A.165(3)
Additionally, an employer may require employees to provide written confirmation of the bereavement leave within three days after returning from the leave. ORS 659A.165(3)
Notice requirement – Employer
Employers are required to post a notice explaining the requirements of Oregon’s Family Leave Act, including its bereavement leave requirements, at every establishment where the employees are employed. ORS 659A.180
Multiple employees who are family members
Employer must permit employees who are family members to take concurrent bereavement leave. ORS 659A.162(4)(c)