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