The mayor of Portland, Oregon, announced that all city employees will receive 40 hours of bereavement leave to “grieve and reflect” over 400 years of black people being oppressed.
Mayor Ted Wheeler sent an email to all city employees on Monday informing them that they will receive the uncontested paid time off to mourn racial disparity in response to the death of George Floyd, according to the Portland Tribune.
“As a nation and as a City we continue to grieve the recent loss of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, and others in the country and in our community,” Wheeler’s email said. “We acknowledge that Black employees are experiencing a collective grief and trauma coming from a culmination of oppression that is over 400 years old.”
The email continued: “We hear and understand that many of our employees, especially our BiPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) employees, are deeply impacted by these recent events and are hurting. I want to give our employees space to grieve and reflect: 40 hours of bereavement leave as allowed under HRAR (Human Resources Administrative Rules) 6.03.”
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