Legal Briefs
H.B.
2258 – Relating to payment of wage on regular paydays, amending
ORS 652.120
It passed and is effective on January 1, 2008. On the surface this
bill seems reasonable, something employers should be able to do without
having it legislated. Simply stated, it requires that every employer
shall establish and maintain a regular payday, at which date the
employer shall pay all employees the wages due and owing to them.
Yet, overlaying this on to our University environment surfaces the
complexities and issues around consistent compliance. In our work
we have letters of offer that go through layers of approval before
arriving in the Office of Human Resources for payment. Sometimes
we replace and add staff to teach on a last minutes basis through
our Adjunct Faculty hiring. And we have employees who leave the University
without notice and/or during extremely busy academic periods. So
while you have a vacancy, you are expected to scramble to ensure
paperwork gets to the right people to ensure timely pay.
Our paid
employees include full time, part time, adjunct, student, and temporary
employees; several different paper and/or web-based
timesheet reporting methods are used; and two different pay periods
depending on an employee’s status are present. One of the most
difficult challenges is getting our student employees into compliance – they
can make themselves somewhat invisible at times and this administrative
process may not be the first thing on their list as they run between
classes, jobs, and personal endeavors. We get the picture!
This bill has amended ORS 652.120 to create an additional burden
for employers related to paying in full any amount owed to an employee
and doing so on a timely basis. It further stipulates that any unpaid
but owed amounts must be paid within three days after the employer
has notice of the unpaid amount, excluding Saturdays, Sundays and
holidays.
The most obvious impact at PSU is that late letters of offer, late
notice of separation, retroactive pay changes, inaccurate or untimely
timesheets, or similar kinds of events create potential non-compliance
for the University.
Every
manager, supervisor, administrator, HR, student, and administrative
support staff member is essential to continuously ensuring all employment
and payroll documents needed to start, continue and end employee
payments within this new law arrive and get processed on time. The
bar has just been raised. Let’s work together determine how
to help each other
respond to this change.
Election Day
November 6th is Election Day. Of note, the newly ratified SEIU Collective
Bargaining Agreement has eliminated Article 43 related to work and
travel time off for voting. Because mail-in balloting is available,
this is no longer a requirement.
You may
get questions about what employees may or may not campaign for
or against while at work. In general, ORS 260.432 states that
a public employee “may not, while on the job during working
hours, promote or oppose election petitions, candidates, political
committee or ballot measures. Additionally, no person (including
elected officials) may require a public employee (at any time) to
do so. We use the phrase “advocate(s) a political position” to
mean— promote or oppose an initiative, referendum or recall
petition, candidate, political committee or ballot measure.” In
addition, there is excellent language outlining what is permissible.
For additional information on these guidelines visit the following
webpage:
http://www.sos.state.or.us/elections/publications/260.432_quickref.pdf
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