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Health officials are growing increasingly optimistic that the COVID-19 pandemic may soon end. That must mean the need to provide public health emergency (PHE) leave is over, right? Not so fast! State and federal emergency declarations remain in place. Under the Colorado Healthy Families and Workplaces Act (HFWA), employees may still be entitled to PHE leave.

The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment (CDLE) has information on its website explaining some key points of PHE leave.

“The emergency leave requirement remains ongoing if a federal or a state ‘emergency’ related to COVID-19 remains,” the CDLE website states. “Currently, both federal and state emergency declarations remain active. Based on those declarations, the requirement to provide COVID-related public health emergency leave will be in effect through at least February 8, 2023.”

Employees may use PHE leave until four weeks after a public health emergency ends. The CDLE says it will update its webpage “immediately when it is aware of when the current PHE is ending and when the 4-week end period will begin.”

PHE requirements remain the same. Effective January 1, 2021, “employers must provide employees with up to two weeks of paid leave (80 hours if full-time, less if part-time) for COVID-related needs.” The CDLE website also states that “employees may still have PHE hours available to use if they didn’t use them in 2021; however, employees don’t get a new 80 hours each time they have a COVID-related need and don’t get a new 80 hours of PHE leave in 2022, except for newly hired full-time employees.”

PHE leave can be used for “COVID-related needs,” not just confirmed cases of the virus. It is important to note that employers are not allowed to require employees to provide documentation that the leave was needed for COVID-19-related purposes.

According to the CDLE website, “COVID-related needs” include:

• An illness with COVID-19 symptoms

• Quarantining or isolating due to COVID-19 exposure

• COVID-19 testing

• Vaccination and side effects

• Inability to work due to health conditions that may increase susceptibility or risk of COVID-19

• “COVID-related needs” of a family member (illness, school closure, etc.).

For more information, please read the Employer’s Council document Colorado Healthy Families and Workplaces Act. If you have any questions about HFWA or PHE leave, please email our Member Experience Team.