The Oregon Family Leave Act (OFLA) is one of many Oregon Labor Laws that employers should be familiar with. It requires employers with 25 or more employees to provide up to 12 weeks of protected leave / time off.
Do NOT confuse OFLA with Oregon's Sick Time Law or Paid Leave Oregon. Oregon's Sick Time Law requires sick time to be provided by all employers and can be paid or unpaid, depending on how many employees the company has and where the company is located. On the other hand, Paid Leave Oregon provides time off and financial support for employees to care for themselves or family members for up to 12 weeks in a year.
OFLA, however, is essentially job-protected (but potentially unpaid) leave, which means an employee can't be terminated or fired as a result of taking time off for any protected leave categories / reasons described below.
Businesses should also consider modernizing timekeeping processes and learning more about time and attendance software or leave management software options to help better manage compliance with things like OFLA.
The state started requiring protected AND Paid Leave in Oregon beginning in 2023. Similar to the Oregon Sick Time Law, Paid Leave Oregon, sometimes referred to as Oregon Paid Family Medical Leave Insurance (PFMLI), is different than OFLA, so it's important that businesses have an understanding of the additional legislation and requirements for paid leave in Oregon.
Beginning on July 1, 2024, changes to Paid Leave Oregon were established to prevent the two from running concurrently with one another. This allows OFLA and PLO to overlap, but PLO does not cover qualifying events such as sick child leave, military family leave, or bereavement leave, and the separation prevents employees from stacking various types of leave, which could add up to 36 weeks of OFLA leave
OFLA coverage includes both employer / company eligibility requirements and employee eligibility requirements.
Companies with 25 or more employees in the current or previous year are required to comply with OFLA. Employees working for eligible companies that worked an average of 25 or more hours within 180 days of employment are eligible to receive protected OFLA leave.
Effective January 1st, 2022, employees only need to work an average of 25 hours or more within 30 days of employment before taking leave during a public health emergency (House Bill 2474).
Exceptions to the above include employees that:
Workers must requalify for OFLA leave each leave year, except for:
Effective July 1st, 2024, updates were made to qualifying events or reasons for leave under OFLA. These updates are meant to prevent redundancies between the Oregon Family Leave Act (OFLA) and Paid Leave Oregon.
The list of current qualified reasons for leave under OFLA includes:
Two employees can take simultaneous leave if:
Effective July 1, 2024, employees qualifying for OFLA are entitled to the following dedicated leave lengths for qualifying events:
It's important to note that changes made on July 1, 2024, have discounted the following leave length provisions:
OFLA leave time can be reduced if employees cannot work and refuse an offer for different work or lighter tasks in some cases. Employees working for multiple employers can qualify for OFLA at one workplace while being out injured at another.
OFLA mandates that employees and employers must adhere to requirements regarding OFLA notices.
Employees are required to issue a notice 30 days in advance when requesting to use OFLA, provided leave – unless it's an emergency. The goal here is for employees to comply with company policy and give the employer time to request the necessary information for qualification purposes.
In an emergency, however, an employee can issue verbal notice within 24 hours of taking leave. If the employee cannot issue the notice on his or her own, another person can request an emergency leave on his or her behalf. Once notified, the request can be approved or employers may ask for additional information within five days.
It’s important to note that on September 26, 2025, employees are no longer required to give an advanced notice for taking child sick leave for a school or child care closure during a public health emergency.
If an employee is on leave and needs additional time, he or she should provide a notice early on – to allow ample time for request assessment and approval.
In cases of inadequate notice, employers can reduce the unused leave benefits if the time off category falls under OFLA requirements, but not FMLA criteria. This can be no more than the number of days of leave the employee has taken without providing timely notice of leave. Any reduction in these benefits may not exceed three weeks in a year's accrual period. Employees can be disciplined for non-adherence to the leave notice policy, but it must be the same discipline received for other types of time-off request notices (like vacation).
For any disciplinary action against employees to take place, he or she must have had access to the proper 2025 - 2026 OFLA poster. Featuring this poster in the workplace, so employees can understand his or her rights, is a requirement for employers.
Many companies handle these types of required postings with a labor law poster subscription service, allowing employers to stay up-to-date and compliant with current labor law legislation.
Upon receiving the request, employers must notify the employee within five days whether the leave is approved or not. If not granted, the employer must provide the employee with a written notice detailing why he or she is ineligible or why the request doesn't qualify for OFLA.
If the leave denial is due to incorrect or incomplete medical verification forms, the written notice should clarify the required corrections. It should be ensured that the employee has enough time to make the changes.
Employers may ask for medical verification, except for sick child and bereavement leave. However, for four or more occurrences of a sick child in a given year, verification can be requested.
If requesting a written medical verification, it's a good idea to highlight possible actions if the employee fails to provide the required information. Employers should also pay for any associated charges to fulfill this request that are not covered by insurance.
In an emergency, the employee should still produce medical verification within 15 days. If the worker fails to hand in the needed information, employers can deny the leave until he or she turns in the paperwork. However, the "leave" cannot be delayed if the employee has already started emergency time off; the leave should be highlighted as provisionally approved.
With a medical verification form, more information is typically not required from an employee's healthcare provider, unless the employee or his or her covered family representative gives permission. Also, two or more verifications can not be requested within 30 days unless there are reasons to doubt the leave's validity or there are significant changes in circumstances since the last verification.
Employers cannot require a second medical opinion for OFLA leave.
Employers must reinstate employees, upon returning from Oregon family leave, to his or her former position or its equivalent if the job no longer exists.
In case of the latter, and an equivalent role is unavailable at the current location, an employee can be relocated within 20 miles of the original worksite.
Employees can also be transferred under schedule reduction or intermittent leave to accommodate the time off if:
NOTE: OFLA "leave" in this case = hours "normally" worked – actual hours worked.
Employees can also be transferred to recuperate from a critical illness if:
NOTE: In such a case, the employee retains his or her rights associated with the original position, unless all OFLA leave is used within the employer's leave year - including the 12 weeks provided in the new role.
Workers on OFLA leave are still subject to non-discriminatory employment actions.
The OFLA expands on and is in addition to the nationwide requirements for the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), but if employers meet the eligibility requirements, compliance is required for both.
Any time off under FMLA also falls under OFLA if the worker is eligible for OFLA leave. Generally, OFLA and FMLA have consistent provisions. Therefore, either leave can be granted. However, the focus should always be on the leave that's most beneficial to the employee.
Employers must offer health insurance coverage, provided the worker is contributing to his or her portion of premiums. Employee premiums are deducted via payroll deduction whenever available. In the case of unpaid leave, the employee should self-pay his or her percentage for health insurance premiums. The same goes for paid optional benefits.
If the employee fails to return to work after an OFLA / FMLA leave, he or she may be required to reimburse for the share of health premiums the employer paid on his or her behalf when on leave.
Employees may use paid accruals during OFLA leave. This includes accrued paid sick time, personal days, vacation, or other types of time off in lieu of vacation for OFLA leave. When that happens, the paid leave is protected under OFLA leave and counted as a protected leave entitlement.
An employer may also require employees to use accrued paid time off for OFLA leave. Employers may also determine the order in which paid time off must be used (as long as this is defined in the employer policy / employee handbook).
Employees cannot go on and off unpaid leave status unless on short-term disability benefits via insurance.
OFLA has undergone several changes over recent years. While some of the most recent updates were already mentioned above, the following outlines the update history to OFLA, as well as any remaining recent updates not yet covered.
On June 8, 2021, Oregon's Governor Kate Brown signed House Bill 2474 into law, amending and expanding OFLA provisions. This includes the removal of gender-specific language, leave entitlements, and eligibility amid public health emergencies, and for employees reemployed following a separation from employment or temporary cessation of work, like a closure of the business.
These amendments were effective on January 1, 2022. Employers should ensure OFLA policies & forms are up-to-date in order to comply with the following new requirements.
The OFLA amendments removed gendered language from provisions relating to childbirth, pregnancy, and the associated leave. The statutory provisions only referred to women (female employees). With the updates, anyone eligible can take time off for injury, illness, and other conditions relating to pregnancy and childbirth, regardless of gender.
For employers that re-employ an employee following a temporary interruption of employment or cessation of work, eligibility rules are as follows.
For employees returning to work or being reemployed within 180 days at the time of his or her temporary work cessation:
The following updates were made regarding public health emergencies.
The amendments expanded OFLA leave provisions amid the proclamation of a public health emergency. In order to be eligible:
The amendment will also allow for leave for an employee's child needing care due to the closure of school or childcare providers following the public health emergency.
While employers may not request medical verification in cases of a sick child leave, employers can ask for:
In addition to the updates regarding leave length and qualifying reasons, there has also been an update regarding previously designated OFLA leave, where employers will need to take certain steps to rescind approvals for OFLA leave requests that are no longer covered as of July 1st, 2024.
Lastly, employers must now use a forward-looking year to determine the amount of OFLA leave an employee is entitled to take in a given one-year period.
With the new updates and OFLA expansions, tracking accrued time off and the usage of that time off or leave is essential. Time and attendance software helps review and approve time-off requests effortlessly. It also helps track employees' paid or unpaid time off balances. While leave management software or solutions are able to track the more nitty-gritty details and help ensure compliance with FMLA, OFLA, and any other state-specific leave laws.
Using a payroll and HR company like GNSA can help institute and streamline processes and achieve compliance as well. Employers can also go a step further by subscribing to a labor law poster service as well, for easy, minimal-risk compliance.
Companies like GNSA provide solutions for employee operations that help reduce labor costs while saving time and resources, which enables companies to focus on the core functions of the business.
Businesses that struggle with maintaining productivity when employees take time off under OFLA, may want to consider employee scheduling software as a solution. So that when employees take OFLA leave, you can ensure your schedule accounts for it.