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Summary of differences between federal and state regulations
Oregon employees are paid for work that is requested or required by the employer. The state laws are nearly identical to the federal requirements.
The federal law does not spell out actual hours that must be worked in a work day. Under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, the workweek ordinarily includes all the time during which an employee is required to be:
- On the employer’s premises,
- On duty, or
- At a prescribed work place.
Oregon does have regulations to define hours worked. Most are substantially equal to the federal regulations, but the state offers some clarifications in the rules for travel time.
For emergency call-backs after hours, the state clarifies that call-backs which require only normal home-to-work travel to the employer’s place of business or job site will not be considered working time. However, if the employee is called out to travel a substantial distance to perform an emergency job, any time spent in excess of time spent in normal home-to-work travel will be considered working time. For this purpose, a “substantial distance” means a distance beyond a 30-mile radius of the employer’s place of business.
For home to work on special one-day assignment to another city, an employee who regularly works at a fixed location must be paid for travel time if given an assignment to work in another city outside of a 30 mile radius of the location where the person is normally employed.
For travel that keeps an employee away from home overnight, time spent in travel outside of regular work hours as a passenger on an airplane, train, boat, bus, or automobile is not considered work time.
Employee work schedules
Effective July 1, 2018, employers with 500 or more employees worldwide in the retail, hospitality, or food services industries will be required to establish work scheduling standards for employees.
The calculation to determine an employer’s number of employees is based on the average number of employees on each workday during a period of 20 or more workweeks in either the current calendar year of the immediately preceding calendar year.
Employees not covered by the law include:
- Salaried employees who are exempt from minimum wage,
- Workers supplied by a worker leasing company, or
- Employees of a business that provides services to or on behalf of an employer.
Good-faith estimate of work schedule
Employers must provide a new employee, at the time of hire, a written good-faith estimate of the expected work schedule. The estimate:
- Must state the median number of hours the employee is expected to work in an average month;
- Must explain the voluntary standby list;
- Must explain whether the employee who is not on a standby list may expect to work on-call shifts, and if so, set forth an objective standard for when an employee may be expected to work on-call shifts; and
- May be based on prior year schedules if it is a good-faith estimate of seasonal or episodic work.
Voluntary standby list
Employers may maintain a voluntary standby list of employees willing to work additional hours due to unanticipated customer needs or unexpected absences. The employees listed on the standby list must have requested or agreed in writing to be on the list.
Employers are required to notify each employee, in writing, of the following:
- That the list is voluntary and lays out how to be removed from the list,
- How the employer will notify standby-list employees of additional hours and how to accept the additional hours,
- That the employee is not required to accept the additional hours offered, and
- That an employee on the standby list is not eligible for additional compensation for changes to the employee’s written work schedule when accepting additional hours as a result of being on the list.
Advanced notice of work schedule
Employers must provide employees with work schedules, in writing, at least:
- 7 calendar days before the first day on the schedule (beginning July 1, 2018); and
- 14 days before the first day on the schedule (beginning on and after July 1, 2020).
The work schedules must be posted in a conspicuous and accessible location and must include all work shifts and on-call shifts for the work period.
If an employer requests changes to the written work schedule after the advanced notice is given:
- The employer must provide the employee with timely notice of the change, and
- The employee may decline any work shifts not included in the employee’s written work schedule.
At any time after the advance notice has been given, employees may request in writing that they be added to work shifts or on-call shifts without penalty to the employer.
Rest between shifts
Unless an employee requests or agrees to work such hours, employers may not schedule or require an employee to work for 10 hours following the end of the most recent work or on-call shift.
If an employee works during this 10-hour period, employers must pay the employee premium pay at a rate of 1.5 times the employee’s regular rate of pay for any time worked that falls within the 10-hour time period.
Employees providing roadside assistance
This premium pay provision does not apply to employees providing offsite repair assistance to a motorist with a disabled vehicle (roadside assistance).
Employee input on work schedule
Employees must be allowed to identify any limitations or changes in work schedule availability and may also request not to be scheduled for work shifts during certain times or at certain work locations.
Employers are not obligated to grant such requests from employees, however, employers may not retaliate against an employee for making a request.
Compensation for work schedule changes
When employers make changes to work schedules without giving the required advanced notice (7 days beginning July 1, 2018, and 14 days beginning July 1, 2020), they must provide premium to pay to employees as follows:
- One hour at the regular rate of pay, in addition to wages earned when employers:
- Add more than 30 minutes of work to the employee’s shift;
- Change the date, start time, or end time of an employee’s work shift with no loss of hours; or
- Schedule an employee for an additional work or on-call shift.
- One-half times an employee’s regular rate of pay, per hour, for each scheduled hour that the employee does not work when employers:
- Subtract hours from an employee’s work shift before or after the employee reports for duty;
- Change the date, start time, or end time of an employee’s shift, resulting in a loss of work shift hours;
- Cancel an employee’s work shift; or
- Do not ask an employee to perform work when scheduled for an on-call shift.
Notice and posting requirements
Employers must display a poster giving notice of the rights and responsibilities of the law. The poster must be posted in a conspicuous place at the workplace or provided on an individual basis if displaying the poster is not feasible.
Employers must also post the written work schedule in a conspicuous and accessible place, in English and in the language the employer typically uses to communicate with the employees.
Employers are required to provide employees on a standby list notice of additional hours by:
- In-person conversation,
- Telephone call,
- Email,
- Text message, or
- Other electronic or written format.
State
Contact
Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries—Wage and Hour Division
Regulations
Oregon Administrative Rules, Bureau of Labor and Industries, Division 20, Wages, Hours Worked
http://arcweb.sos.state.or.us/pages/rules/oars_800/oar_839/839_020.html
839-020-0040, Hours Worked -- Generally
839-020-0041, Waiting Time
839-020-0042 Sleeping Time and Certain Other Activities
839-020-0043 Preparatory and Concluding Activities
839-020-0044 Lectures, Meetings and Training Programs
839-020-0045 Travel Time
839-020-0046 Adjusting Grievances, Medical Attention, Civic and Charitable Work and Suggestion Systems
Federal
Contact
The Department of Labor is the federal agency that monitors hours worked.
Regulations
U.S. labor regulations for hours worked can be found in CFR 29: