Protected Leave: Qualifications & Eligibility

You must meet the following requirements to qualify for protected leave:

If you take time intermittently or work a reduced work schedule, you must be able to perform the essential functions of your job while you are at work. If you are unable to perform your job responsibilities while at work, you may be required to take continuous leave.

Minimum "Hours Worked" Qualifications

Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA): 

To be eligible for FMLA leave, an employee must:

  • have worked for that employer for at least 12 months; and
  • have worked at least 1,250 hours during the 12 months prior to the start of the FMLA leave; and,
  • work at a location where at least 50 employees are employed at the location or within 75 miles of the location.

Oregon Family Leave Act (OFLA):

To be eligible for OFLA leave, an employee must:

  • have worked for that employer for at least 180 days immediately prior to the beginning of the leave; and
  • have worked a minimum of 25 hours per week during the 180 days immediately prior to the beginning of the leave.

Leave Entitlement

With some exceptions, employees are entitled to 12 weeks within a one-year period.  That exhausts the FMLA leave entitlement except for military caregivers leave, which can extend to 26 weeks in one leave year.  Under OFLA, women taking any pregnancy disability leave are allowed an additional 12 weeks for any OFLA purpose. Either parent who has taken a full 12 weeks of parental leave (e.g., to care for a newborn, newly adopted child or newly placed foster child) are also entitled to take up to an additional 12 weeks leave to care for a child with a non-serious health condition requiring home care.

Eligible Reasons Under FMLA

Although there are a few exceptions, FMLA generally provides 12 weeks of unpaid leave per year for the following purposes:

  • For the birth, adoption or foster care placement of a child (parental leave).
  • To care for a family member with a serious health condition or the employee´s own serious health condition (serious health condition leave).
  • For pregnancy disability or prenatal care (pregnancy disability leave).
  • To care for a seriously ill or injured service member or veteran (26 weeks).
  • A “qualifying exigency” arising out of the foreign deployment of the employee's spouse, son, daughter, or parent.

Eligible Reasons Under OFLA

Beginning July 1, 2024, OFLA provides protected time off to eligible employees for the following reasons:

  • Sick child leave for the employee to care for their child because of an injury, illness, or condition that requires home care. Sick child leave includes both serious or non-serious health conditions (in addition to family leave for a child's serious health condition under Paid Leave Oregon). Sick child leave is also available for school and childcare closures in conjunction with public health emergencies
  • Bereavement leave is available within 60 days after an employee learns of the death of a family member
  • Pregnancy disability for the employee’s own pregnancy related incapacity before or after the birth of the child or for prenatal care 
  • Military family leave — up to 14 days per deployment — continues to count against available OFLA.

From July 1, 2024 through December 31, 2024, OFLA will also provide child placement leave to facilitate the legal processes required for placement of a foster child or adoption. (Paid Leave will incorporate this leave beginning 2025. 

Note: that for purposes of sick child leave, the child must be either under the age of 18 or an adult dependent child substantially limited by a physical or mental impairment.