Pregnancy Disability and Parental Leave in the Era of OFLA, FMLA, and PLO

Over the past few years, protected leaves have changed significantly in Oregon. Prior to 2023, employers only had to administer the Oregon Family Leave Act (OFLA) and Federal Medical Leave Act (FMLA). OFLA and FMLA typically ran concurrently and covered many of the same qualifying events, making administration simpler compared to today.

In 2023, the implementation of Paid Leave Oregon (PLO) changed everything. At first, OFLA, FMLA, and PLO ran concurrently when possible. However, in 2024, changes were made so that OFLA and PLO would no longer overlap. This presented many questions, particularly when there were qualifying events that could be covered by OFLA or PLO. One of the most complex situations involves pregnancy disability and parental leave. Before explaining how these leaves interact, let’s first review a few important terms:

Oregon Family Medical Leave Act (OFLA)

OFLA is a state leave law that generally provides up to 12 weeks of unpaid protected leave to eligible employees. Not all employers are subject to OFLA. OFLA only applies to employers with 25 or more employees in Oregon.

Employees typically become eligible for OFLA when they 1) have been employed for 180 days prior to the date the employee first takes leave and 2) have worked an average of 25 hours per week during those 180 days.

Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA)

FMLA is a federal leave law that generally provides up to 12 weeks of unpaid protected leave to eligible employees. Like OFLA, FMLA does not apply to all employers. FMLA covers employers with 50 or more employees in the United States.

Employees generally become eligible for FMLA when they 1) have worked for the employer for a total of 12 months in the previous 7 years, 2) work at a location that has at least 50 employees within a 75-mile radius of the location, and 3) have worked 1,250 hours in the 12 months immediately preceding the first day of leave.

Paid Leave Oregon (PLO)

PLO is Oregon’s state paid leave program. PLO provides up to 12 weeks of paid leave to eligible employees, plus an additional two weeks of leave to pregnant employees. PLO has the lowest threshold of employer coverage of the three leave laws: An employer with at least one employee in Oregon is covered by PLO.

Employees typically become eligible for PLO if they have earned at least $1,000 in wages in the first four of the last five completed calendar quarters preceding the leave. The $1,000 does not have to be earned with the same employer. It is an accumulation of wages earned from all employers during that period. Additionally, employees must have been paying contributions into the PLO fund.

Pregnancy Disability

Pregnancy disability only applies to birthing parents. A birthing parent can take pregnancy disability for routine medical visits related to pregnancy or pregnancy-related health conditions. It may include prenatal visits, lactation, or other pregnancy-related conditions, such as gestational diabetes. Pregnancy disability may be taken before or after the birth. Every birthing parent will likely be eligible for some period of pregnancy disability because the leave covers recovery from childbirth.

Pregnancy disability is explicitly covered by OFLA as a qualifying reason. However, leave for pregnancy-related conditions may also be covered by FMLA and PLO as a serious health condition. Keep in mind that if an employee applies for and is approved for PLO for pregnancy-related reasons, OFLA cannot also cover the leave.

Parental Leave

Parental leave has been known by many different names: maternity leave, paternity leave, and baby bonding leave. Parental leave allows employees to bond with their baby within the first 12 months after the baby’s birth. This leave may be taken by either parent, not just the birthing parent. This leave also includes bonding with a child placed with the employee through adoption or foster care.

Parental leave is a qualifying reason under both FMLA and PLO. It is not covered under OFLA.

Why are these two particular types of leave so complex?

Mainly, the reason these types of leaves are complex is because there has been so much change to Oregon’s leave laws over the past couple of years. As stated previously, currently the leaves cover the following:

Although OFLA and PLO can both cover leave for pregnancy-reasons, they cannot both cover leave at the same time. If an employee requests leave for pregnancy-related reasons, then employers should begin the OFLA process and issue the OFLA Notice of Eligibility and Rights & Responsibilities, request medical certification, and issue the Designation Notice. If OFLA is approved, the time off should be deducted from the employee’s OFLA leave entitlement. However, if the employee applies for PLO (which employees are not required to apply for) and is approved, then the OFLA leave should be credited back to the employee’s OFLA entitlement to ensure that the leaves do not overlap. It’s important that employers are careful in administering OFLA in this situation. If the OFLA process is not started after being notified of an employee’s need for leave for an OFLA-qualifying reason, then an employer is out of compliance with OFLA rules; it is the employer’s responsibility to begin the process after an employee indicates a need for leave. However, if the employee later applies for and is approved for PLO and the employer does not credit back OFLA leave, then the employer would also be out of compliance for running the leaves concurrently.

How do I know when pregnancy disability becomes parental leave?

One of the clearest ways is to listen to what the employee is telling you. Are they saying they need time off after the baby’s birth to recover? Are they saying they’re going to take maternity, baby bonding, or parental leave? If they say that they are recovering from giving birth, you know that pregnancy disability is the qualifying reason and can ask for medical certification. The medical certification will tell you the amount of time recovery will be needed. For example, if the certification says recovery will take four weeks, then the employee is covered by pregnancy disability for four weeks. After four weeks, the employee can choose to take parental leave immediately or later in the year.

The leave laws that cover these reasons could differ depending on whether the employee applies for PLO. If the employee chooses not to apply for PLO, then pregnancy disability would be covered by OFLA and FMLA. For parental leave, the employee has a few options. They could choose not to apply for PLO and use the rest of their FMLA for parental leave. In this situation, the employee could still use PLO for parental leave later in the year as long as it is prior to the child’s first birthday. Alternatively, the employee could apply for parental leave immediately through PLO to have it begin when pregnancy disability ends. In this case, OFLA and FMLA would run concurrently for pregnancy disability, and PLO and FMLA, assuming that FMLA has not been exhausted, would run concurrently for parental leave.

Let’s review a few scenarios:

Scenario #1

For example, let’s say that Blake has an uncomplicated pregnancy. However, when the baby is born, Blake requires a C-section. The doctor writes that Blake needs six weeks to recover from the C-section. Blake wants to take the full amount of parental leave to bond with their baby immediately upon their recovery.

In this case, the first six weeks after birth are covered by pregnancy disability, and 12 weeks (14 with PLO) after the end of those six weeks are covered by parental leave. In this situation, assume that Blake applied for PLO to begin immediately after the 6 weeks of pregnancy disability ended. Also, keep in mind that while you can request medical certification for pregnancy disability, FMLA does not allow you to request certification for parental leave.

Scenario #2

However, there is a situation where a birthing parent might not use pregnancy disability at all, even if they have requested leave to recover after birth. Remember, OFLA and PLO cannot run concurrently, but PLO could cover recovery after birth as a serious health condition.

In this case, Blake has an uncomplicated pregnancy. However, when the baby is born, Blake requires a C-section. The doctor writes that Blake needs six weeks to recover from the C-section. Blake immediately applies for and is approved for six weeks of PLO to cover the recovery time from the birth.  Blake is also requesting 14 weeks of parental leave after recovery; this means Blake is requesting a total of 20 weeks of leave between recovery from childbirth and parental leave. In this case, the first six weeks after birth are covered by PLO; OFLA cannot cover it because the employee has been approved for PLO and the two cannot run concurrently. After recovery, Blake immediately transitions to parental leave. At this point, Blake has used six weeks of PLO. They have 8 weeks remaining, since PLO provides birthing parents an extra two weeks of pregnancy-related leave. Since FMLA runs concurrently, Blake has also used six weeks of FMLA for Blake’s recovery and has six weeks of FMLA remaining.

After the six weeks for recovery from childbirth, Blake requests 14 weeks of parental leave. Since Blake has already used six weeks of FMLA for recovery, after six weeks of parental leave, Blake exhausts their FMLA. Blake uses six weeks of PLO for recovery and PLO runs concurrently with FMLA until FMLA is exhausted. At this point, Blake has used 12 weeks of FMLA and 12 weeks of PLO. However, Blake still has two weeks of PLO remaining since they have two weeks of PLO specifically for pregnancy-related reasons. Therefore, after two more weeks of parental leave, Blake exhausts their PLO. Overall, Blake is covered under a combination of PLO and FMLA for 14 weeks before their leaves are exhausted: six for recovery from childbirth and 8 for parental leave.

Since Blake requested a total of 14 weeks of parental leave, six of the 14 weeks Blake requested are not covered by any leave law. If Blake had used OFLA for pregnancy disability and then requested PLO for parental leave afterwards, Blake would have had enough protected leave to cover all of their requested time.

Major Takeaways

Pregnancy Disability

1. Pregnancy disability and parental leave are not the same.
2. Pregnancy disability can be taken both before and after birth.
3. Medical certification verifies the length of pregnancy disability.
4. FMLA runs concurrently with pregnancy disability.
5. If an employee takes leave for a reason under pregnancy disability and applies and is approved by PLO, PLO takes precedence over OFLA coverage.

Parental Leave

1. Parental leave may be referred to by employees as maternity leave, paternity leave, or baby bonding leave. All are parental leave.
2. Parental leave is covered by both FMLA and PLO.
3. You may not ask for certification for parental leave under FMLA.
4. PLO will ask for employees to submit documentation to verify birth when an employee applies for parental leave.
5. Parental leave may be used in the first 12 months of the baby’s birth.

These were only two potential scenarios with pregnancy disability and parental leave. For additional information about protected leaves, Cascade members can access our FMLA and OFLA FAQs. Cascade also provides a members-exclusive Paid Leave Oregon Resource Center with extensive information, FAQs, and scenarios. An Oregon Leave Laws: Basics Compliance training is available on October 14, 2026, along with a  Paid Leave Oregon: Basics of Compliance training on November 10, 2026, to help employers better understand the laws and how they interact with different leave requirements. Please also reach out to us at 503-585-4320 or compliance@cascadeemployers.com.