Colorado Employers Must Accommodate Pregnancy, but May Not Have to Duplicate I-9 Reporting Efforts

On June 1, 2016, Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper signed into law House Bill 16-1438, which requires all Colorado employers to engage in an interactive process to determine if the employer can reasonably accommodate requests by applicant or employees for conditions related to pregnancy or childbirth.  (See Campbell Litigation's related article for more specific details about the new law.)  The new law will go into effect on August 10, 2016.[1]

Colorado employers also await Governor Hickenlooper’s signature for House Bill 16-1114, which eliminates an employer’s duplicative efforts to maintain I-9 type information for state law purposes.[2]  Under Colorado law, employers are required to maintain the same documentation for the state as they do for the federal I-9 form.  House Bill 16-1114 that unnecessary, duplicative state burden.  The Bill passed both the Colorado House of Representatives and Senate unanimously, and Governor Hickenlooper has until Friday, June 10, 2016 to sign the bill.  Campbell Litigation will continue to monitor House Bill 16-1114 through the June 10, 2016 deadline and report back on the bill’s status.  [UPDATE: On June 8, 2016, Governor Hickenlooper signed House Bill 16-1114, which will take effect August 10, 2016.]

[1] Micah D. Dawson, Colorado Pregnancy Accommodation Bill Passes, The National Law Review (May 21, 2016) (http://www.natlawreview.com/article/colorado-pregnancy-accommodation-bill-passes) (last accessed June 2, 2016).

[2] See Colo. Rev. Stat. § 8-2-122.  Current Colorado law requires employers to attest: (1) to the legal status of each employee (within twenty days of hire and keep copies of documentation); (2) that it has not altered or falsified the employee’s identification documents; and (3) has not knowingly hired an unauthorized alien.