In my state (OR), employers are required to provide sick leave unless their PTO benefit exceeds the minimum required for paid sick leave. Because of this, my employer only provides all-encompassing PTO.
It's company policy that you must use your PTO if you take a sick day, and calling out without PTO available is a writeup, so they advise people to keep hours on deck for sudden illness. Unpaid time off is not allowed.
To save money, my employer has started requiring people to use PTO in an amount that grows the more you have saved, for the last 3 quarters now, reducing everyone to 2 days or fewer in the bank. They also require you to use your PTO for facility closures, which have happened twice now in the last year.
What this means is that I'm running at 0 hours PTO very often, and no matter how I plan, I can't both take time off and have enough hours saved for health incidents. Vacation time is not legally protected, but I don't get sick time because of this vacation time, and my health is super unpredictable.
Is this legal? How can I protect my health? Should I just never take non-sick PTO, and if so, am I actually being compensated with that benefit? I like this job a lot, but this is taking a toll on me.