Employers participating in the state-run Family and Medical Leave Insurance Program (FAMLI) have a variety of obligations pursuant to Colorado’s paid leave statute. For example, employers are required to withhold or pay themselves the employee portion of the premium and to maintain the employee’s health insurance while on leave. Employers are also required to display a FAMLI program notice in the workplace (or through email or a web-based app if they have a remote workforce) and to provide the notice to employees upon hire.
One often-overlooked obligation is that the FAMLI statute requires employers participating in the program to individually deliver the program notice to employees within five days of learning of an employee event that triggers FAMLI eligibility. The program notice is available here.
While this notice requirement is similar to obligations pursuant to the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), the FAMLI notice must be delivered to an employee with an eligibility event within five calendar days, while FMLA’s notice must be given within five business days.
This small but important difference means employers may need to update their employee leave processes to provide the FAMLI and FMLA paperwork and notices together (when applicable) within five calendar days to ensure compliance. Supervisors and managers should be trained on which events trigger FAMLI and/or FMLA to communicate with human resources when notices need to be sent. When in doubt, supervisors and managers should send information to human resources, who can discuss with the employee and determine which leaves the employee may be eligible for and then provide the correct notices.
FAMLI has many requirements and can be overwhelming to employers. Employers Council has a variety of resources to ensure members stay up to date and in compliance, including our FAMLI overview, FAMLI checklist, and FAMLI Leave handbook policies. If you have any questions, please contact Employers Council.
Maggie Roddy is an attorney for Employers Council.