Or. Rev. Stat. § 663.005 (2026)

      663.005 Definitions. As used in this chapter, unless the context requires otherwise:

      (1) “Board” means the Employment Relations Board.

      (2) “Conciliator” means the head of the State Conciliation Service.

      (3) “Employee” includes any employee, and is not limited to the employees of a particular employer unless this chapter explicitly states otherwise, and includes any individual whose work has ceased as a consequence of, or in connection with, a current labor dispute and who has not obtained any other regular and substantially equivalent employment, but does not include an individual:

      (a) Employed in agricultural labor as defined in ORS 657.045;

      (b) Employed by the parent or spouse of the individual;

      (c) Employed in the domestic service of any family or person at home;

      (d) Having the status of an independent contractor;

      (e) Employed as a supervisor;

      (f) Employed by an employer subject to the Railway Labor Act, as amended (45 U.S.C. 151 to 163 and 181 to 188);

      (g) Employed in the building and construction industry;

      (h) Employed by any other person who is not an employer as defined in subsection (4) of this section; or

      (i) Employed by an employer subject to the jurisdiction of the National Labor Relations Board under its existing jurisdictional standards, pursuant to the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947, as amended (29 U.S.C. 141 to 187).

      (4) “Employer” includes any person acting as an agent of an employer, directly or indirectly, but does not include:

      (a) The United States or any wholly owned government corporation, or any Federal Reserve Bank.

      (b) This state, or any county, city or political subdivision or agency thereof.

      (c) Any person subject to the Railway Labor Act, as amended (45 U.S.C. 151 to 163 and 181 to 188).

      (d) Any labor organization (other than when acting as an employer), or anyone acting in the capacity of officer or agent of a labor organization.

      (e) Any person involved in the building and construction industry.

      (f) Any person subject to the jurisdiction of the National Labor Relations Board under its existing jurisdictional standards, pursuant to the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947, as amended (29 U.S.C. 141 to 187).

      (5) “Labor dispute” includes any controversy concerning terms, tenure or conditions of employment or concerning the association or representation of persons in negotiating, fixing, maintaining, changing or seeking to arrange terms or conditions of employment, regardless of whether the disputants stand in the proximate relation of employer and employee.

      (6) “Labor organization” means an organization of any kind, or an agency or an employee representation committee or plan, in which employees participate and which exists for the purpose, in whole or in part, of dealing with employers concerning grievances, labor disputes, wages, rates of pay, hours of employment or conditions of work.

      (7) “Professional employee” means:

      (a) An employee engaged in work:

      (A) Predominantly intellectual and varied in character as opposed to routine mental, manual, mechanical or physical work;

      (B) Involving the consistent exercise of discretion and judgment in its performance;

      (C) Of such a character that the output produced or the result accomplished cannot be standardized in relation to a given period of time;

      (D) Requiring knowledge of an advanced type in a field of science or learning customarily acquired by a prolonged course of specialized intellectual instruction and study in an institution of higher learning or a hospital, as distinguished from a general academic education or from an apprenticeship or from training in the performance of routine mental, manual or physical processes; or

      (b) An employee who:

      (A) Has completed the courses of specialized intellectual instruction and study described in paragraph (a)(D) of this subsection; and

      (B) Is performing related work under the supervision of a professional person to qualify the employee to become a professional employee as defined in paragraph (a) of this subsection.

      (8) “Representative” includes an individual or labor organization.

      (9) “Supervisor” means any individual, other than a licensed professional or practical nurse, having authority, in the interest of the employer, to hire, transfer, suspend, lay off, recall, promote, discharge, assign, reward or discipline other employees, or responsibly to direct them, or to adjust their grievances, or effectively to recommend such action, if in connection with the foregoing the exercise of such authority is not of a merely routine or clerical nature, but requires the use of independent judgment.

      (10) “Unfair labor practice” means any unfair labor practice listed in ORS 663.120 to 663.165. [Formerly 662.505; 1975 c.147 §12; 1975 c.163 §2; 2003 c.14 §408]