Courtesy of UOSW
On Oct. 24, the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industry (BOLI) notified the University of Oregon (UO) that they “recently received information which indicates that new employees may not be receiving their wages in a timely manner in accordance with ORS 652.120.”
Back in April, the University of Oregon Student Workers Union (UOSW) submitted photos of paystubs and work schedules to BOLI, showing that new student employees were not receiving their paychecks for upwards of 35 days after their start date. The Oct. 24 letter was sent to UO and UOSW, in response to the evidence submitted earlier this year.
“Based on the information received, it appears that the University of Oregon is in violation of ORS 652.120, and new employees are being paid more than 35 days after their first day of work,” stated the letter.
Statute ORS 652.120 states that “payday may not extend beyond a period of 35 days from the time that the employees entered upon their work, or from the date of the last regular payday.”
The BOLI letter urged the university to “review the current practices for paying new employees,” and to “take immediate and proper steps to correct the situation.”
“Additional complaints alleging similar violations could result in further investigation,” warned the letter.
UO is not the only university in Oregon to face labor violations in recent years. In October of 2023, Pacific University was fined $99,000 by BOLI for violating ORS 652.750, and not allowing their employees to see their own personnel files. Seven former employees filed complaints, prompting an investigation.
At UO, these labor complaints and subsequent negotiations are coming from current students, who are balancing academics, employment and involvement with the union.
UOSW is one of the largest — and formerly the largest — student worker unions in the country, and was also the first student worker union at a public university.
In a Nov. 20 UO Union Update, which is a publication of UOSW, two bargaining members elaborated on UOSW’s most pressing issue — pay periods. This particular publication, entitled “University of Oregon Found Illegally Withholding Pay,” alerted their readership to BOLI’s recent letter asking for “immediate steps.”
“Under Oregon law, employees must be paid within 35 days of starting work,” the Nov. 20 publication stated. “But each year, student employees have their pay withheld for six weeks after beginning work — in violation of state law.”
The publication also quoted UO student worker Victoria Piñeiro ’25, who described the very real effects of delayed payment for working students.
“Student workers at UO disproportionately come from lower income families and are often the first in their families to attend college. A lot of people run out of food — or put off medical expenses — at the end of the month,” she said. “One of our most pressing issues is simply for student workers to be paid biweekly, so they’re not forced into hardship at the end of every month. But so far the administration has refused to address this in any way.”
Lewis & Clark’s approximately 730 student workers on the undergraduate and graduate campuses are paid on a monthly basis through Workday, a platform designed to keep track of hourly schedules, paid time off and payment. This payment schedule is consistent throughout the year, including the summer months, provided that students submit their monthly hours by the 20th of each month. Students receive their paychecks, either via direct deposit or in-person pickup, by the final business day of that month, and depending on the position, are paid at least Portland metro area minimum wage, which is $15.95 per hour.
But that is not the case for the roughly 4,000 student workers at UO.
Emily Hoag ’26, an anthropology major at UO and member of the UOSW bargaining team, explained that she has been working for the University Catering Company for a little over a year, where she makes standard Oregon minimum wage at $14.70 per hour.
“I started right after a pay period started, and then two weeks later, all my coworkers were getting their paycheck, and I was like well, where’s mine?” said Hoag. “I had to wait another 30ish days to get paid. It was very, very frustrating. I started mid-summer, and I didn’t get paid until almost the end of summer.”
She described how she was not the only student struggling with the university’s pay periods. Beyond remedying the illegal 35 plus-day pay period several new workers have endured, UOSW is also advocating for a biweekly pay period instead of a monthly pay period. The union says the current schedule can result in unnecessary hardship for students managing rent, bills and other expenses throughout the month.
“When I talk to workers and say, ‘What do you care about? What should we be fighting for?’ all of them are saying the pay period, because even if you are being paid on time, you’re still being paid every month, which is not always the easiest to manage,” Hoag said.
Hoag said that the UOSW has been aware of issues with pay periods for several years, though they did not begin bargaining with the university until this summer.
“We submitted to BOLI, we compiled evidence,” said Hoag, referring to April, when she joined the UOSW bargaining team and began to take action. “Basically, we took pictures of pay stubs and schedules. My paycheck was one of the ones that was submitted. But we said, this was my start date. This is the day it was paid. And we submitted those to BOLI, and then received that letter in response.”
Hoag expressed frustration with the university’s response to concerns about the pay period in recent bargaining sessions.
“It’s hard when you’re trying to manage finances. One of the things that was said at the table (by UO bargain members) was that these jobs are supposed to be part-time, pocket money type things,” she said. “These jobs aren’t just pocket money. They are to pay for books and tuition and rent, and it’s hard to see my coworkers and other students across campus, student workers across campus, struggle at the end of the month and have empty fridges, you know?”
She was hopeful that going forward, UOSW and UO will be able to come to an agreement that serves the best interests of student workers.
Izzie Marshall ’25, a political science major at UO, works at the university’s Erb Memorial Union, which is the center for student activities and involvement on their campus. Marshall is also a member of the UOSW bargaining team.
They explained how bargaining began in late spring, continued through the summer and is still ongoing.
“I’m mostly disappointed with the university, like, how many months we’ve been bargaining with them, and how little progress we’ve made,” Marshall said. “At this point, it’s been five and a half or six months total, and we proposed the harassment discrimination article, first thing, and the pay period and wages. Having that be on the table for so long and us not getting the progress we wanted to see, I mean it’s, quite frankly, really disappointing.”
Marshall shared that UOSW has put forth 48 articles, or sections of a proposed contract, since the start of negotiations with the university, but that the two parties have only reached two tentative agreements so far.
Marshall expressed that they felt somewhat hopeful going forward.
“As a bargaining team, we’re going to work really hard,” they said. “We’re willing to compromise and willing to make progress during mediation.”
Marshall elaborated on a few other issues UOSW is working to address.
“Something that we talk about frequently is misgendering in the workplace,” said Marshall. “The other thing is sexual harassment … The main issue with that is the university doesn’t have a current system as it exists, does not have a direct and reliable way to deal with that. It varies from workplace to workplace.”
They explained how their work with UOSW is rewarding, but time-intensive — and unpaid.
“We’ve passed almost 50 articles that required a lot of research and a lot of working together and reworking, rewriting — even just the little grammatical things,” they said. “We spend hours and hours trying to compile and make sure that our articles are representing the student workers that we are, that we organize with, which does take time because we are thoughtful and want to reach the best contract we can get through bargaining.”
Marshall emphasized that unlike the university representatives who are negotiating with UOSW, all work with and for the student union is uncompensated. Additionally, the work is often conducted by the busiest students — those who care about student employee rights because they are directly experiencing financial hardship, work-related stress and unsatisfactory labor conditions.
“We’re doing it for free,” they said. “Most people who are on the bargaining team are, first of all, students, right? And student workers and organizing for the union and on the bargaining team.”
The final bargaining session was on Nov. 22, which Hoag said went “better than usual,” speculating that it was because the next session will be in mediation. Bargaining sessions are approximately three hours long and are open to the public. Going forward, UOSW and UO will enter mediation sessions, in which a state-assigned mediator from the State Employment Relations Board helps the two parties reach an agreement in a closed-door session. The first mediation session, which occurs at least 150 days after the first bargaining session, will be held on Jan. 7, 2025.
On Dec. 2, Piñeiro, who also serves as the organizing co-chair and co-lead negotiator of UOSW, shared a statement with The Mossy Log on behalf of the UOSW bargaining team.
“We are disappointed by the lack of movement from the university on articles that are vital to our unit such as liveable wages, a two-week pay period, and protections for harassment and discrimination on the job,” wrote Piñeiro via email. “This past session, the UO stated it would fix the issue of illegally withholding pay from its workers, but not through a two-week pay period like our article suggests. They refuse to address the issue of students not having enough money at the end of the month to eat, pay rent, or pay for medical costs. As mediation starts, we are prepared to come to the table with the demands from our student workers and fight for what we need.”
Angela Seydel, a spokesperson for UO, outlined the university’s plans for addressing employee pay periods going forward in a statement shared with The Mossy Log on Dec. 3.
“The UO is focused on complying with ORS 652.120 and paying all employees within 35 days from either their first day worked or last regular pay day. We are adding functions to our central payroll office to help ensure that people are paid on time,” she wrote.
Seydel explained that the timing of a new employee‘s first paycheck depends on three factors: the employee’s hire and start dates, the date that the payroll department received hiring paperwork, which may be later than the start date, and the date of the next payday. She said that in cases where the next payday lands beyond a 35-day window, the employee’s hiring unit needs to submit a manual check request.
Seydel identified steps the university is taking toward complying with Oregon state law, including new payroll systems that send automatic notifications for manual check requests and amped-up efforts for pay administrators to monitor 35-day windows for new employees.
“As to UO Student Workers bargaining, we’re working towards a collective bargaining agreement that best serves student employees and the university,” she said.
Information on negotiation status, including all proposals currently under discussion or agreed upon can be found on the Employee and Labor Relations page on the UO website.
Although a bi-weekly payment schedule is at the top of the union’s demands, they continue to advocate for health and safety standards, livable wages and policies to address workplace harassment and discrimination.
“It really is going to take all of us,” Marshall said. “We’re obviously going to compromise and also fight really strongly for this contract.”
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