What Is OFLA? Oregon Family Leave Act Eligibility and Protections

The Oregon Family Leave Act (OFLA) is a state law that gives eligible employees up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected time off each year to handle a pregnancy disability, care for a sick child, grieve a family member’s death, or deal with a military family situation. It applies to employers with 25 or more workers, which is a lower threshold than the federal Family and Medical Leave Act. The Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI) enforces it, and it runs separately from Paid Leave Oregon, which handles wage replacement for a different set of leave reasons.

Who Qualifies for OFLA

Your employer is covered if it has had 25 or more employees working in Oregon for at least 20 calendar weeks in the current or prior year.¹ Because federal FMLA only reaches employers with 50 or more employees, OFLA fills a real gap for people working at smaller Oregon workplaces.

For most types of OFLA leave, you need 180 days of employment and an average of at least 25 hours per week during that period. Pregnancy disability leave uses a lighter test: 180 days of employment, with no minimum weekly hours.² A part-time worker who becomes pregnant can still get job protection even if her schedule has been under 25 hours a week.

Under SB 69, signed in 2025, airline employees based in Oregon who are subject to federal airline crew regulations can qualify under the hours-of-service rules in federal law rather than the standard 25-hour weekly test.³

What You Can Take OFLA Leave For

Major changes took effect July 1, 2024. Leave for your own serious health condition, a family member’s serious health condition, and bonding with a new child all moved out of OFLA and into Paid Leave Oregon.³ If you came looking for parental bonding leave or recovery from a non-pregnancy illness, that is now a Paid Leave Oregon question, not an OFLA one.

What OFLA still covers:

Pregnancy disability, including prenatal care and recovery from childbirth, when the condition prevents you from performing your job duties.⁴
Sick child leave to care for your child with an illness, injury, or condition requiring home care. It covers both serious and non-serious conditions and also applies when a child’s school or daycare closes due to a public health emergency. The child must be under 18, or an adult dependent child with a qualifying impairment.³
Bereavement leave to attend a funeral, make arrangements, or grieve after a family member’s death. This leave must be used within 60 days of learning about the death.⁵
Military family leave, up to 14 days per deployment, which draws from your OFLA bank.³

“Family member” is defined broadly for sick child and bereavement leave. It covers your spouse, same-gender domestic partner, parents (including stepparents, in-laws, and your partner’s parents), grandparents, grandchildren, and children of any kind, along with anyone who stood in a parental role to you.⁶

How Much Time You Get

The core entitlement is 12 weeks of leave in a one-year period, with your employer choosing how that year is measured.⁴ All qualifying reasons draw from the same 12 weeks. If you use six weeks for bereavement, only six remain for sick child or military family leave that year.

Pregnancy disability is the one exception. You can take an additional 12 weeks in the same year specifically for a pregnancy or childbirth condition that prevents you from working.⁴ A pregnant employee could use as much as 24 weeks of OFLA-protected time in a single year: 12 for pregnancy disability plus 12 for other qualifying reasons like sick child leave.

The older stacking arrangement that could add up to 36 weeks no longer exists. When parental bonding and serious health conditions moved to Paid Leave Oregon in 2024, the stacking that made 36 weeks possible went with them.

OFLA Leave Is Unpaid

OFLA protects your job, not your paycheck.³ You or your employer may apply accrued vacation, sick leave, or other paid time off during the absence. Whether that substitution is optional or required depends on company policy and any collective bargaining agreement. If your leave also qualifies under Paid Leave Oregon, you can receive wage replacement from that program while OFLA holds your position.

How OFLA Interacts With FMLA and Paid Leave Oregon

Oregon employers with 50 or more employees have to comply with both OFLA and the federal FMLA, and the two laws can run at the same time.

When a single event qualifies under both OFLA and FMLA, the clocks run concurrently. Pregnancy disability is the clearest example: the time counts against both entitlements at once.³ You do not get 12 weeks of FMLA followed by 12 weeks of OFLA for the same pregnancy.

OFLA also covers some reasons FMLA does not. Federal law has no equivalent of sick child leave for non-serious conditions and no bereavement leave. When you use OFLA for one of those reasons, it does not touch your FMLA bank, which can leave your federal entitlement intact for something else later in the year.³

Paid Leave Oregon is a separate program. OFLA leave and PFML leave do not run concurrently; they are additive. Time taken under one does not reduce your entitlement under the other. When more than one law could apply, your employer must generally apply whichever rules are most favorable to you.

Requesting Leave

If your need for leave is foreseeable, your employer can require 30 days’ written notice. The notice should explain why you need the time off, though you are not required to name OFLA specifically.⁷

For unforeseeable leave, like a child’s sudden illness or an unexpected death, you must give verbal or written notice within 24 hours before or after the leave begins. Someone else can give the notice for you. Your employer may then require written notice within three days of your return.⁷

Once your employer knows the absence might qualify, it has five business days to tell you whether you are eligible.⁸

Medical Verification

Verification rules depend on the type of leave. Your employer can ask for medical verification of pregnancy disability leave. For sick child leave, the employer can require medical verification only starting with the fourth separate use within a leave year; the first three times, your word is enough.⁹

Employers cannot require medical verification for bereavement leave at all.⁹ They can still ask for basic information to confirm the leave qualifies, such as the family member’s identity and the reason, but that is separate from medical verification.

Job and Health Insurance Protection When You Return

When your leave ends, your employer must restore you to the same position you held before, even if someone was hired to cover for you. If that specific position no longer exists, you are entitled to an equivalent role with the same pay, benefits, and terms.¹⁰

If no equivalent position is available at your original worksite, the employer must offer you an equivalent position at any job site within 50 miles, starting with the closest.¹⁰

Your group health insurance continues during leave on the same terms as if you were still working, and family coverage stays intact if your plan covers family members. You remain responsible for your share of the premium, and the employer must keep paying its share.¹⁰

Other benefits generally do not continue to accrue during the leave unless your employer’s policy, employment agreement, or union contract says so. You keep whatever benefits you already earned before the leave began. Before putting you back on the job, your employer can require a fitness-for-duty certification, but only if that policy applies uniformly to everyone returning from leave.¹⁰

If Your Employer Retaliates or Denies Leave

It is an unlawful practice in Oregon for an employer to deny OFLA leave to an eligible employee or to retaliate against anyone for asking about leave, requesting it, or invoking any OFLA provision. Retaliation covers discrimination in hiring, firing, promotions, and other employment terms tied to your use of or inquiry about OFLA.¹¹

If you believe your employer violated OFLA by denying leave, retaliating, or failing to restore your job, you can file an employment discrimination complaint with BOLI through its online portal or by emailing boli_help@boli.oregon.gov.³ Save copies of your leave requests, your employer’s responses, and any negative actions that followed. That paper trail will matter if a dispute reaches the agency.

1
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Code 659A.153 – Covered Employers
2
Oregon Public Law. Oregon Revised Statutes 659A.156 – Eligible Employees, Exceptions
3
State of Oregon. Oregon Family Leave Act
4
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Code 659A.162 – Length of Leave, Conditions, Rules
5
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Code 659A.159 – Purposes for Which Family Leave May Be Taken
6
Oregon Public Law. Oregon Administrative Rule 839-009-0210 – OFLA Definitions
7
Oregon Public Law. Oregon Administrative Rule 839-009-0250 – OFLA: Notice by Employee, Designation by Employer
8
Legal Information Institute. Oregon Administrative Code 839-009-0240 – OFLA: Length of Leave and Conditions
9
Oregon Public Law. Oregon Administrative Rule 839-009-0260 – OFLA: Medical Verification and Scheduling of Treatment
10
Oregon Public Law. Oregon Revised Statutes 659A.171 – Job Protection, Benefits
11
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Revised Statutes Chapter 659A – Family Leave