Oregon Statutes 659A.082 – Discrimination against person for service in uniformed service prohibited
(1) As used in this section:
Terms Used In Oregon Statutes 659A.082
- Employer: means any person who in this state, directly or through an agent, engages or uses the personal service of one or more employees, reserving the right to control the means by which such service is or will be performed. See Oregon Statutes 659A.001
- Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
- Person: includes individuals, corporations, associations, firms, partnerships, limited liability companies and joint stock companies. See Oregon Statutes 174.100
- public body: means state government bodies, local government bodies and special government bodies. See Oregon Statutes 174.109
- United States: includes territories, outlying possessions and the District of Columbia. See Oregon Statutes 174.100
- Unlawful employment practice: includes a practice that is specifically denominated in another statute of this state as an unlawful employment practice and that is specifically made subject to enforcement under this chapter. See Oregon Statutes 659A.001
(a) ‘Service’ means the performance of duty on a voluntary or involuntary basis in a uniformed service that may involve active duty, active duty for training, initial active duty for training, inactive duty for training, full-time duty in the National Guard, funeral honors duty or an examination to determine fitness for service in a uniformed service.
(b) ‘Uniformed service’ means the Armed Forces of the United States, the Army National Guard and the Air National Guard when engaged in active duty for training, inactive duty training or full-time National Guard duty, the commissioned corps of the United States Public Health Service and any other category of persons designated by the President of the United States in time of war or national emergency.
(2) It is an unlawful employment practice for an employer to discriminate against a person because of the person’s service in a uniformed service by:
(a) If the employer is a public body, denying a public officer or public employee the status or rights provided by ORS § 408.240 to 408.280 and 408.290.
(b) Denying any of the following because a person is a member of, applies to be a member of, performs, has performed, applies to perform or has an obligation to perform service in a uniformed service:
(A) Initial employment;
(B) Reemployment following a leave from employment taken by reason of service in a uniformed service;
(C) Retention in employment;
(D) Promotion; or
(E) Any other term, condition or privilege of employment, including but not limited to compensation.
(c) Discharging, expelling, disciplining, threatening or otherwise retaliating against the person for exercising or attempting to exercise the status or rights provided by this section.
(3) An employer does not commit an unlawful employment practice under subsection (2)(b) of this section if the employer acted based on a bona fide occupational requirement reasonably necessary to the normal operation of the employer’s business and the employer’s actions could not be avoided by making a reasonable accommodation of the person’s service in a uniformed service.
(4) Subsection (2)(b) and (c) of this section shall be construed to the extent possible in a manner that is consistent with similar provisions of the federal Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994, including the five-year limit on eligibility for reemployment under 38 U.S.C. § 4312.
(5) In addition to any exception under federal law, the cumulative period of time for which an employee is absent from a position of employment with an employer for purposes of any of the following types of service in the uniformed service shall be excluded from the calculation of any durational limit on the eligibility for reemployment rights:
(a) Voluntary service overseas; and
(b) Voluntary service within the United States during or in response to an emergency or disaster declared by local, state or federal government. [2009 c.378 § 2; 2011 c.18 § 1; 2021 c.62 § 2]
(Leave of Absence for State Service)