In the long history of law, the term “Employment Law” is a relatively new concept. In fact, I created the Employment Law Attorney category in the 1987 Portland Yellow Pages. Before then, there was Labor Law, for unionized work forces and Civil Rights Law, which provided some rights to public employees. Now, Employment Law generates a large number of lawsuits.

Employment law, generally, refers to the rights and obligations of employees and employers.

Generally, there are three sources of rights and obligations: (1) individual or union contracts, (2) state and federal statutes, and (3) common law, or rights developed from court cases. Every year, the rights and obligations change. Typically, employees are getting more and more rights.

Although most people know of the right to be free from discrimination based on race or gender or age, there are many quirks in the law. The following are some examples of lesser-known Oregon laws.

• In nursing homes, if an employee raises concerns about the care of a patient and the employer then fires or punishes the employee, then the employee has a right to sue. We want people standing up for vulnerable people.
• Oregon victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking now have a right for reasonable safety accommodations to protect them.
• Oregon businesses with 25 or more employees must allow military spouses to take up to 14 days off to spend with service members before deployment, after deployment or during leave.

The point is, if you think your employer is doing something that is against good public policy, there’s a chance that the law backs you up.

On the other hand, it is still true that there is no legal protection from dumb bosses who decide to favor a less competent person over you. Employers do not need “just cause” to fire or demote you. Employers can be arbitrary, so long as their motivation is not an illegal motivation, such as based on race, gender, or retaliation for asserting legal rights, or one of the dozens of other protected reasons.

If you are an Oregon employee and think you might have been fired for an illegal reason or are being abused, feel free to call me at 503-665-4234.