PHE Leave under HFWA Now Available for More than COVID-19

November 23, 2022

The Healthy Families and Workplaces Act (HFWA) requires Colorado employers to provide employees with up to 80 hours of paid sick leave when a public health emergency (PHE) has been declared. (For information about the HFWA, see the articles below dated July 23, 2020, December 28, 2020, and July 6, 2022.)

PHE leave is still available to Colorado workers because the state remains under a public health emergency as defined in the HFWA. On November 11, 2022, Governor Polis issued an Executive Order amending the emergency declaration to include respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), influenza, “and other respiratory illnesses due to the serious increases in infection and hospitalization throughout the State.” The term “other respiratory illnesses” is extremely broad. Arguably, PHE leave is now available for a common cold.

The Executive Order does not give employees more PHE leave than was previously available. The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment’s website clarifies that: “The expansion beyond COVID doesn’t give employees an extra 80 hours for those conditions, it just means they can use their 80 hours for a broader range of conditions.” Interestingly, the CDLE page refers to flu, RSV, and “similar respiratory illnesses” (rather than “other respiratory illnesses”).

The Executive Order can be found here.

The CDLE statement quoted above is here.