Last week, the City Council of Eugene, Oregon voted 6-2 to develop an ordinance that would require employers to provide paid sick leave to employees effective July 1, 2015.
Earlier in the year, the City Council convened a task force including the mayor and local business representatives, and the task force reported to the Council on various issues and policy concerns associated with municipal sick leave ordinances. The Council will now continue to meet and will hold a public hearing on a draft ordinance on July 21, 2014. Public participation in development and passage of the ordinance will be limited, however, as the Council has already rejected a proposal to put the sick leave ordinance to voters in the November 2014 election. Instead, the Council itself plans to vote on the ordinance on July 28, 2014, or shortly thereafter.
Although the ordinance has not yet been drafted, the approved motion to draft the ordinance indicates that the final result is likely to be similar to Portland's Sick Leave Ordinance. Specifically, the motion that passed provided that the ordinance must include the following provisions:
Establish an accrual rate of one hour paid sick time for every 30 hours worked that may be taken in one-hour increments; allow workers to accrue a minimum of 40 hours in a year with the ability for unused earned time to carry over to the next year, but at no time shall employers be required to allow employees to use paid sick time in excess of 40 hours in a year; accrual to begin upon employment with access to earned sick time starting when employee has been employed 90 calendar days; ordinance shall apply to all employers whose employees work within the city of Eugene.
