Colorado Employers No Longer Required to Provide Public Health Emergency Leave Related to COVID-19

Adrian Sanchez, Law Clerk

Since 2021, the Healthy Families & Workplaces Act (“HFWA”) has required Colorado employers to provide supplemental, paid public health emergency leave (“PHE Leave”) to employees for certain leaves of absence relating to COVID-19. Per the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment (“CDLE”), this additional paid leave requirement ended as of June 8, 2023, although employers continue to be subject to the HFWA’s general paid sick leave provisions and requirements.

Public Health Emergency Leave, COVID-19, and the Timing of Employers’ Obligations to Provide PHE Leave

As previously discussed in The Rocky Mountain Employer blog,[1] May 11, 2023 marked the end of the federal public health emergency declaration concerning COVID-19, as originally announced by the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) back in January 2020. Since Colorado’s disaster emergency orders relating to COVID-19 also expired as of April 27, 2023, the end of the HHS’s emergency declaration on May 11 started a four-week countdown for PHE Leave benefit entitlements—with June 8 as the anticipated expiration date.

The June 8, 2023 expiration date has passed without any further extensions or announcements of PHE Leave from the state, and Colorado employers are therefore no longer required to provide up to 80 hours of supplemental PHE Leave for COVID-19-related reasons or other prior declared public health emergencies (such as RSV, influenza, and other respiratory illnesses that were previously covered by the HFWA’s PHE Leave provisions).[2]  Of course, employers may still provide such leave benefits if they so choose.  

Although the PHE Leave portions of the HFWA are no longer in effect (at least as of now), employers should continue to monitor the CDLE’s website, INFO bulletins, and other guidance related to HFWA leave, PHE Leave, and other employee leave entitlements in Colorado.  As always, Campbell Litigation is available to assist employers with these and other leave-related questions and issues.

[1]https://www.rockymountainemployersblog.com/blog/2023/5/11/despite-the-end-of-the-federal-covid-19-public-health-emergency-phe-colorado-phe-leave-remains-in-effect-for-at-least-four-more-weeks.

[2] Interpretive Notice & Formal Opinion (“INFO”) #6B, at p. 3, available at https://cdle.colorado.gov/infos.