In the event of a public health emergency declared by federal, state or local authorities, the requirement increases to 80 hours for employees who work 40 or more hours a week. For part-time employees, the sick leave increases to the amount of time worked in a two-week period. Both would cover quarantine and stay-at-home orders.<\/p>\n
Gov. Jared Polis is supportive of paid leave and said the 48 hours per year \u201cis about what\u2019s needed,\u201d but he declined to say he backs the legislation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat would be very good in responding to this public health crisis,\u201d Polis said in response to a recent Colorado Sun question about the proposal. \u201cBecause then, if they are a little under the weather, they will not feel the economic pressure to go in. They instead can go and get tested.\u201d<\/p>\n
For McDade, the 44-year-old restaurant veteran who is not currently working, said it\u2019s much-needed. She has worked jobs with paid time off and ones without. When she doesn\u2019t have it available, it\u2019s more difficult to care for herself and her autistic son. \u201cIt would be nice that it wasn\u2019t so constricted,\u201d she said. \u201cIf you have an emergency you should be able to use it right then and right there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Democrats abandoned broader paid leave earlier this session<\/div>\n
The new bill comes after a failed effort earlier this year to create a paid family leave program, with at least 12 weeks leave, amid opposition from the business community.<\/p>\n
And like its predecessor, the new measure is drawing considerable criticism from Republican lawmakers and business owners who say the pandemic is not the time to impose new requirements on businesses.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are giving them enough mandates for safety compliance,\u201d said Sen. Paul Lundeen, R-Monument. \u201cAnother mandate will be the straw that breaks the camel\u2019s back \u2014 except it\u2019s much heavier than a straw, it\u2019s probably a brick bat.\u201d<\/p>\n
Right now, some Colorado workers are able to take paid sick leave under federal coronavirus legislation through the end of the year.<\/p>\n
At least six states require employers to provide paid sick leave to all employees and another seven states require it for companies with more than 15 employees, according to legislative analysts. In some states, the terms are more limited and require a 90-day waiting period or more working hours to accrue sick leave.<\/p>\n
The legislation in Colorado \u2014 labeled the Health Families and Workplaces Act \u2014 would begin when the federal sick leave requirements end. And it would go further than other states by requiring all companies, regardless of size, to provide the benefit to all workers. It also would start when employment begins.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s meant to be a very basic safety net for all workers in the state of Colorado,\u201d Fenberg said.<\/p>\n
Under the language of the bill, an employee could use the time to attend medical appointments or address a mental or physical health condition, and the coverage extends to situations related to sexual assault, harassment or domestic abuse.<\/p>\n
An employee could use the paid sick time for themselves, family members and people who live with them for at least six months. In a public health emergency, the sick time would cover situations where the employee needs to look after a child whose school or childcare facility has closed. The request could be made verbally and does not require proof of need.<\/p>\n
The employees may carry forward unused time into the new year so they don\u2019t start at zero each January. But the maximum leave in one year remains at 48 hours, unless employers allow more time. In addition,employers don\u2019t need to pay out unused leave when an employee leaves the company.<\/p>\n
The requirement on employers does not apply to federal, state and local governments, or school districts. And any businesses that currently provide at least 48 hours of paid time off would meet the requirements but vacation does not qualify<\/p>\n
Bridges, one of the bill sponsors, said he expects to make changes to tighten the requirements in the bill to ensure employees tap their sick leave \u201cfor what it\u2019s allowed to be used for.\u201d The sponsors also encouraged employers to go beyond the minimums outlined.<\/p>\n
The proposed terms of the new program sound \u201cmarvelous,\u201d to Serah Ezeudoye, 80, who escorts passengers in wheelchairs for a company at Denver International Airport. Despite her 23 years on the job, she had to take off three unpaid days in June 2019 after being put in the hospital for a medical condition.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we have all this being paid for, it is good for the economy and it is good for the family. I makes everybody happy,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Business groups and owners express concern about the bill<\/div>\n
The legislation is expected to cost the state labor department $300,000 a year to enforce and require at least three new employees to handle a projected 480 sick leave complaints each year.<\/p>\n
An employer who violates the law would face fines up to $100 from the state, according to analysts, as well as potential civil lawsuits.<\/p>\n
Tony Gagliardi, the Colorado director for the National Federation of Independent Businesses, said most of his members offer paid leave and such decisions are \u201cbest left between the employer and the employee \u2014 that\u2019s the way it\u2019s worked for years.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said his members are focused on how to keep their businesses alive or reopen the doors as public health restrictions lift, so now is not the time for new regulations.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now, I think it\u2019s bad timing,\u201d he said. \u201cLet\u2019s get business going again, let\u2019s get the economy going again, and don\u2019t saddle business owners with new costs when they are trying to come back from forcibly being closed for 10 weeks or so.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jim Noon, the owner of Centennial Container, a packaging company, echoed the sentiment.<\/p>\n
He offers 32 hours of paid sick leave to his 11 employees, so an increase to 48 hours under the bill wouldn\u2019t make a huge impact. But it\u2019s the broader message Democrats are sending to businesses that bothers him.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere I have a problem with this: Why do we have to mandate it? Is it just so they feel better?\u201d he asked. \u201cWe are coming out of the biggest hit that business has taken all at one time in the history of the country, and we\u2019re going to make businesses pay the bill?\u201d<\/p>\n
For Colorado Concern, an influential business organization that opposed the paid family leave legislation earlier this year, the new bill and new focus on workplaces is concerning.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately, adding additional financial pressures to businesses \u2014 and this is not the only bill like this that is being discussed \u2014 is only going to make it more difficult for our business owners to get their doors open and maintain their staffing levels,\u201d Mike Kopp, the organization\u2019s president, wrote in a statement.<\/p>\n
Instead, Kopp argued the focus should be \u201cspecific crisis-relief measures that help businesses safely keep more of their valued workers employed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis measure,\u201d he added in the statement, \u201cwhile surely well-intended, doesn\u2019t do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Staff writer Jesse Paul contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\nThe Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, journalist-owned news outlet exploring issues of statewide interest. Sign up for a newsletter and read more at coloradosun.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Business owners and organizations are opposed to new mandates<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":53626,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[394,233,28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-53625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-colorado-legislature","tag-coloradosun-com","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53625"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53625\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88329,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53625\/revisions\/88329"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53625"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=53625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}