(1) A public employer shall grant a preference to a veteran or disabled veteran who applies for a vacant civil service position or seeks promotion to a civil service position with a higher maximum salary rate and who:

(a) Intentionally left blank —Ed.

(A) Successfully completes an initial application screening or an application examination for the position; or

(B) Successfully completes a civil service test the employer administers to establish eligibility for the position; and

(b) Meets the minimum qualifications and any special qualifications for the position.

(2) The employer shall grant the preference in the following manner:

(a) For an initial application screening used to develop a list of persons for interviews, the employer shall add five percentage points to a veteran’s score and 10 percentage points to a disabled veteran’s score.

(b) For an application examination, given after the initial application screening, that results in a score, the employer shall add the preference to the total combined examination score without allocating the preference to any single feature or part of the examination. The employer shall add five percentage points to a veteran’s score and 10 percentage points to a disabled veteran’s score.

(c) For an application examination that consists of an interview, an evaluation of the veteran’s performance, experience or training, a supervisor’s rating or any other method of ranking an applicant that does not result in a score, the employer shall give a preference to the veteran or disabled veteran. An employer that uses an application examination of the type described in this paragraph shall devise and apply methods by which the employer gives special consideration in the employer’s hiring decision to veterans and disabled veterans.

(3) Preferences of the type described in subsection (1) of this section are not a requirement that the public employer appoint a veteran or disabled veteran to a civil service position.

(4) A public employer shall appoint an otherwise qualified veteran or disabled veteran to a vacant civil service position if the results of a veteran’s or disabled veteran’s application examination, when combined with the veteran’s or disabled veteran’s preference, are equal to or higher than the results of an application examination for an applicant who is not a veteran or disabled veteran.

(5) If a public employer does not appoint a veteran or disabled veteran to a vacant civil service position, upon written request of the veteran or disabled veteran, the employer, in writing, shall provide the employer’s reasons for the decision not to appoint the veteran or disabled veteran to the position. The employer may base a decision not to appoint the veteran or disabled veteran solely on the veteran’s or disabled veteran’s merits or qualifications with respect to the vacant civil service position.

(6) Violation of this section is an unlawful employment practice.

(7) A veteran or disabled veteran claiming to be aggrieved by a violation of this section may file a verified written complaint with the Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor and Industries in accordance with ORS 659A.820 (Complaints).

(8) For purposes of this section, “disabled veteran” includes a person who is receiving service-connected compensation from the United States Department of Veterans Affairs under 38 U.S.C. 1110 or 1131. [Amended by 1977 c.854 §3; 1989 c.507 §2; 1999 c.792 §1; 2007 c.525 §2; 2011 c.82 §1; 2018 c.91 §7; 2021 c.195 §1]

(a) “Service” means the performance of duty on a voluntary or involuntary basis in a uniformed service that may involve active duty, active duty for training, initial active duty for training, inactive duty for training, full-time duty in the National Guard, funeral honors duty or an examination to determine fitness for service in a uniformed service. (b) “Uniformed service” means the Armed Forces of the United States, the Army National Guard and the Air National Guard when engaged in active duty for training, inactive duty training or full-time National Guard duty, the commissioned corps of the United States Public Health Service and any other category of persons designated by the President of the United States in time of war or national emergency.

(2) It is an unlawful employment practice for an employer to discriminate against a person because of the person’s service in a uniformed service by: (a) If the employer is a public body, denying a public officer or public employee the status or rights provided by ORS 408.240 to 408.280 and 408.290. (b) Denying any of the following because a person is a member of, applies to be a member of, performs, has performed, applies to perform or has an obligation to perform service in a uniformed service: (A) Initial employment; (B) Reemployment following a leave from employment taken by reason of service in a uniformed service; (C) Retention in employment; (D) Promotion; or (E) Any other term, condition or privilege of employment, including but not limited to compensation.

(c) Discharging, expelling, disciplining, threatening or otherwise retaliating against the person for exercising or attempting to exercise the status or rights provided by this section.

(3) An employer does not commit an unlawful employment practice under subsection (2)(b) of this section if the employer acted based on a bona fide occupational requirement reasonably necessary to the normal operation of the employer’s business and the employer’s actions could not be avoided by making a reasonable accommodation of the person’s service in a uniformed service.

(4) Subsection (2)(b) and (c) of this section shall be construed to the extent possible in a manner that is consistent with similar provisions of the federal Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994, including the five-year limit on eligibility for reemployment under 38 U.S.C. 4312. (5) In addition to any exception under federal law, the cumulative period of time for which an employee is absent from a position of employment with an employer for purposes of any of the following types of service in the uniformed service shall be excluded from the calculation of any durational limit on the eligibility for reemployment rights: (a) Voluntary service overseas; and (b) Voluntary service within the United States during or in response to an emergency or disaster declared by local, state or federal government. [2009 c.378 §2; 2011 c.18 §1; 2021 c.62 §2]

(1) To discriminate means to make a distinction between individuals or groups based on common characteristics, real or perceived. Certain kinds of discrimination are unlawful. Oregon civil rights laws generally prohibit making decisions in employment, housing, places of public accommodation and career schools because an individual is a member of a class protected by these statutes.

(2) When an individual files a complaint with the division alleging unlawful discrimination, the division must determine whether substantial evidence of such discrimination exists.

(3) That a private employer may give employment preference in the hiring or promotion of employees under OL Ch. 86, Sec. 2 2014 (persons in uniformed service and their widows and widowers) does not preclude the filing of a complaint under ORS chapter 659A.