By J. Chris Duckworth, Attorney, Bullard Law NW law firm Cities with unionized workforces take note: on June 20, 2019, Governor Brown signed House Bill (“HB”) 2016 into law, which will place numerous new restrictions and requirements on how public sector employers (“Employers”) do business with unions and unionized workforces. […]

Long-Term Job Openings Fueled by Replacements By Oregon Employment Department, Continued job growth and record low unemployment are making it difficult for Oregon businesses to fill current vacancies, and Oregon’s economy is expected to create 263,000 job openings each year through 2027. At 12 percent, expected employment growth in Oregon […]

Congressman Greg Walden, Representative Greg Walden (R-Hood River) released the following statement after the House passed the Stopping Bad Robocalls Act: Last year alone, 47.8 billion robocalls were placed nationwide. Already this year, there have been 25 billion robocalls — that is over 76 per person so far this year. […]

National Federation of Independent Business, NFIB, the nation’s leading small business advocacy organization, issued the following statement on behalf of NFIB President & CEO Juanita D. Duggan in response to the United States House of Representatives passage of the Raise the Wage Act, harmful legislation that would mandate a federal […]

Josh Lehner Oregon Economic Analysis Office In recent months we have discussed the big picture outlook for labor supply, the silver tsunami of retirements, how migration is slowing but remains the key driver of population gains, and how birthrates are dropping and deaths are rising. However, what we haven’t done […]

By Kathryn M. Hindman Bullard Law Surrounded by California’s and Washington’s paid family medical leave laws, we knew it was possible. Soon it will be a reality. The Oregon legislature recently passed an extremely generous paid Family and Medical leave law that will impact almost every Oregon employer. Fortunately, employers […]

By Rachel Dawson Cascade Policy Institute In January 2019 the City of Portland implemented a voter-approved a 1% tax on certain “retail sales” within Portland to fund clean energy projects and jobs training. This tax will be applied to retailers with $1 billion or more in total sales, $500,000 of […]

Washington Recognizes Obesity as a Protected Class By Sarah Hale Bullard Law, Oregon law firm The Washington Supreme Court, for the first time, held that obese workers are protected under the state’s anti-discrimination laws. In Taylor v. Burlington Northern Railroad Holdings, Inc., the Court held that obesity can be a […]

Oregon Attorney General Release, Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum announced a nationwide settlement with the consumer reporting giant, Equifax, as the result of an investigation into a massive 2017 data breach, the largest-ever breach of consumer data. Oregon will receive over $2.8 million from the settlement and consumers are eligible to […]

Spontaneous Political Combustion By Anthony K. Smith Oregon NFIB, Attribute it to the personal empowerment of email lists and social media, then add a strong push by legislative arrogance, and what happened in Salem during the waning weeks of the 2019 legislative session is another example of a phenomenon occurring […]