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Caution! Public Record Laws Can Affect Employee Personal Property
Multnomah County Approves Telework Policy
With the County’s new telecommuting rule, as well as the increased prevalence of employees using personally owned equipment and computers for work, it is important that employees understand the State of Oregon’s public records laws. These laws apply not only to business conducted on County property or equipment, but also when an employee uses their own personal property to conduct County business, whether working on County premises, in the field, or at home while telecommuting.
The rules and guidelines below outline the County’s expectations and obligations when an employee uses personal property to conduct County business.
- Employees should avoid using personal property to conduct County business when there are County provided supplies and equipment available to use.
- If employees co-mingle personal business with County business using personal property or County property, the personal information may need to be reviewed by authorized County employees to separate it from County business. Employees should understand that there is no expectation of privacy when recording personal information on County property, and that their ability to keep their personal property private is limited when it is used to conduct County business.
- Employees are required to follow County policies regarding safeguarding, storage, and retention of public records that are captured using the employee’s personal property. Release or destruction of any public records should only be done at the official department location in accordance with County standards and protocols.
- Employees are required to provide access to personal property that contains a public record if the record does not otherwise exist on County property or systems. The County may need to make copies of the employee’s property and redact County records before returning the property to the employee.
- The County is not responsible for damages or losses that occur to the employee’s property resulting from the employee choosing to use personal property instead of County property to conduct County business.
- Work done at a telework site is considered official County business. Products, documents and records used by or developed while teleworking shall remain the property of the County. Employees who telework should understand that when they use their personal computer for County business that they may be required to have their hard drive copied by the Information Technology Division to secure or produce any public records.
It is important for supervisors to ensure that their employees understand these guidelines, and employees should be advised to contact their supervisor or department Human Resources representative in advance of using personal property to conduct County business if they have any questions.
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New FMLA Regulations
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- Perfect Attendance Awards: Employers can now deny perfect attendance awards to employees who do not have perfect attendance because of taking FMLA leave so long as the employer treats other non-FMLA employees the same way.
- Holidays: For the purposes of determining the amount of leave used by an employee, the new regulations clarify that the fact a holiday occurs within the week taken as FMLA leave has no effect—the week is counted as a full week of FMLA leave. However, if an employee is using FMLA leave in increments of less than one week, the holiday will not count against the employee’s FMLA entitlement unless the employee was otherwise scheduled and is expected to work during the holiday.
- Physical Impossibility Exception to Intermittent Leave: When it is physically impossible for an employee using intermittent leave or working a reduced leave schedule to commence or end work mid-way through a shift, such as where a flight attendant is scheduled to work aboard an airplane, the entire period that the employee is forced to be absent counts against the employee’s FMLA entitlement.
- Military Family Leave: The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) amended the FMLA to provide two new leave entitlements:
- Military Caregiver Leave (also known as Covered Service Member Leave): Eligible employees who are family members of covered service members can take up to twenty-six (26) workweeks of leave in a single twelve (12)-month period to care for a covered service member with a serious illness or injury incurred in the line of duty on active duty.
This entitlement extends FMLA job-protected leave beyond the normal twelve (12) weeks of leave and extends FMLA protection to additional family members beyond those who may take FMLA leave for other qualifying reasons.
- Qualifying Exigency Leave: The second provision makes the normal twelve (12) work weeks of FMLA leave available to eligible employees with a covered military member serving in the National Guard or Reserves to use for “any qualifying exigency” arising out of the fact that a covered military member is on active duty or called to active duty status in support of a contingency operation.
The final rule defines qualifying exigency by referring to a number of broad categories for which employees can use FMLA leave:
(a) short-notice deployment;
(b) military events and related activities;
(c) childcare and school activities;
(d) financial and legal arrangements;
(e) counseling;
(f) rest and recuperation;
(g) post-deployment activities; and
(h) additional activities not encompassed in the other categories, but agreed to by the employer and employee.
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