Colorado’s COVID-19 Public Health Emergency Sick Leave Requirements



In this podcast, Rebecca Lindell and Abbey Wallach discuss Colorado employers’ paid sick leave obligations and related requirements under the Healthy Families and Workplaces Act (HFWA), which has wide-ranging implications for Colorado employers of all sizes. The speakers focus on the public health emergency (PHE) leave portion of the HFWA, addressing the qualifying events that trigger employers’ ongoing obligation to provide paid sick leave, employees’ permitted uses of PHE leave, and the factors affecting employees’ entitlement to and allotment of such leave. The speakers also present a series of hypotheticals crafted in part from guidance issued by the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment addressing the interplay between PHE leave and accrued paid sick leave required under the HFWA.