Please review Human Resources' guidance regarding Remote Work Based Outside of the State of Oregon, then follow the instructions below.
 

Permanently Working Outside Oregon

Immediately upon hiring an employee who will work outside of Oregon for at least 51% of their time, your office will need to contact the appropriate offices.  The university may be required to purchase special workers’ compensation insurance for any UO employee who works and/or resides outside of Oregon.  This may also affect the proper state and/or city tax withholding for the employee.

Caution:  At the University of Oregon, many foreign national employees (employees that are neither U.S. citizens nor Lawful Permanent Residents of the U.S.) are only authorized to work on campus based on their visa status. In most cases, they cannot perform work off-campus or outside of the U.S. without authorization. This applies to those who will be hired to work and reside in their home country. It can be costly to departments and require tremendous amounts of time to correct employment and pay issues when work is performed off-campus or outside of the U.S. without authorization. Additionally, unauthorized employment of this nature may violate both U.S. labor laws and USCIS regulations pertaining to their visa. Therefore, we encourage all hiring managers to contact Business Affairs prior to the hiring process or prior to assigning a foreign national employee to work off-campus or overseas. 

To report an employee who will be working outside of Oregon, please complete the Employee Working Outside Oregon web form. Note: Employees may not self-report their work locations.

Temporarily Working Outside Oregon

Employees who are Oregon residents, who are temporarily working outside of Oregon, and who will be returning to campus are covered under the standard Oregon Workers’ Compensation Insurance policy.   For these employees, departments still need to complete the Employee Working Outside Oregon web form.

Employee Working Outside of Oregon Moves to Oregon

If you have an employee who has been working outside the state of Oregon and their job location is changing to Oregon, please contact uopayroll@uoregon.edu with the employee's information, new job location, and date of relocation.

Job Location Changes within Oregon

If you have an employee whose job location is changing within the state of Oregon, please contact payroll@uoregon.edu with the employee's information, new job location, and date of relocation.

Workers' Compensation Notices for Employees Working Outside of Oregon

Safety and Risk Services has workers' compensation coverage information for other states here: Posting Notices

Questions

Safety and Risk Services
(541) 346-8316
riskmanagement@uoregon.edu

Payroll Office
uopayroll@uoregon.edu

International Travel / Remote Hires

See Office of Risk Management for important information related to international travel before your employee leaves the country.

International Remote Hires

Employing people who will work remotely from abroad should occur only when there is a compelling business necessity. An ad hoc approach in which individual units decide to continue employment for employees abroad will not be sustainable, in part because of the risks associated with decentralized decision making and global employment. For example, the individual decision to employ someone abroad may impact university operations in whether UO’s total number of employees in a particular destination triggers a permanent establishment, different tax obligations for the university, and/or a requirement to register as a business. It is expensive and difficult to comply with other countries’ labor and employment laws relating to health and safety, harassment, data security, data privacy, etc.  Further, it is expensive and difficult to ensure compliance with other countries’ payroll withholding requirements (e.g.  tax withholdings, paying into other countries’ medical and social security systems, etc.) – all of which creates significant risk/liability to UO.  Universities have had to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to correct situations wherein their employees worked in other countries, but the university was not properly paying into those countries’ required benefit systems.  

It remains possible for UO to employ people to work remotely in other countries, but doing that is discouraged unless the work is mission critical, there is no other person in the United States who can do the work, and there is a sufficient business justification (for example, the person must be located abroad because part of the work can only be accomplished from abroad). In that case, UO can authorize an employee to work in a different country.  The department will be responsible for paying the increased cost of employing a person in a different country, which is in addition to the employee’s regular salary, and may include paying an international payroll firm to handle payments (withholdings, etc.) and paying for outside counsel in the foreign country to advise on compliance obligations for that country’s labor and employment laws.  The cost of engaging outside counsel, to start, can range from $4,000 - $6,000. If the department chooses to undertake these costs, Jessica Price (jgprice@uoregon.edu) and Lindsay Pepper (lpepper@uoregon.edu) can facilitate connecting the unit with outside counsel for advice to ensure legal compliance (which can vary based on the citizenship/national origin of each employee, so the fact that one employee is in a location abroad does not necessarily mean that we understand the rules required to add another).  Outside counsel will weigh in on the additional compliance obligations. If the department is willing to complete the steps required for compliance, it should also complete Business Affairs’ remote work request form, which is available here: Employee Working Outside Oregon web form. Sometimes, units start with BA’s remote work form, which is fine, and then are subsequently connected with Jessica & Lindsay for the advice of outside counsel.