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Anderson v. Evergreen International Airlines Inc.12/14/1994
n Safe Employment Act (OSEA), ORS 654.062(5). That subsection provides:
"(a) It is an unlawful employment practice for any person to bar or discharge from employment or otherwise discriminate against any employee or prospective employee because such employee has opposed any practice forbidden by [the Oregon Safe Employment Act] * * *.
"(b) Any employee or prospective employee who believes that the employee has been barred or discharged from employment or otherwise discriminated against * * * may, * * * file a complaint with the Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor and Industries * * *. The affected employee shall also have the right to bring a suit in any circuit court of the State of Oregon * * *. The commissioner or the circuit court may order all appropriate relief including rehiring or reinstatement of the employee to the employee's former position with back pay."
Plaintiff argues that the statute does not afford him an adequate remedy for a variety of reasons. Because we agree with plaintiff's first argument, that the OSEA, including ORS 654.062(5), does not apply to employees working outside of Oregon, we do not consider the others.
ORS 654.003 expresses the legislature's policy in enacting the OSEA:
"The purpose of the Oregon Safe Employment Act is to assure as far as possible safe and healthful working conditions for every working man and woman in Oregon, to preserve our human resources * * *." (Emphasis supplied.)
Subsequent sections of the OSEA specifically forbid employers from creating or maintaining unsafe places of employment and require employers to comply with safety regulations. ORS 654.010; ORS 654.015; ORS 654.022. Towards
those ends, the OSEA authorizes the Director of the Department of Consumer and Business Services to set and enforce safety and health standards and procedures to achieve the statute's objectives. ORS 654.003. In particular:
"The director is vested with full power and jurisdiction over, and shall have such supervision of, every employment and place of employment in this state as may be necessary to enforce and administer all laws, regulations, rules, standards and lawful orders requiring such employment and place of employment to be safe and healthful * * *." ORS 654.025(1). (Emphasis supplied.)
The OSEA, by its terms, is limited to the maintenance of safe working conditions in Oregon. The "whistleblower" protections of ORS 654.062(5)(a) are, necessarily, congruent with the OSEA's general territorial scope. Consequently, an employee who opposes a practice which would otherwise be forbidden by the OSEA, but which occurs at a place of employment outside of Oregon, has no statutory remedy under ORS 654.062(5)(a). Plaintiff is such an employee; accordingly, his common law claim is not precluded by the availability of a statutory remedy.
The trial court erred in dismissing plaintiff's wrongful discharge claim.
Reversed and remanded.
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