Skip to main content

One to Keep An Eye On: Family Medical Leave Insurance Program (Colorado)


As with many employment and labor law related cases (and bills) being litigated around the country, there are always a few that stand out.  This is one to keep an eye on.


Colorado sure has been busy this legislative session, hasn't it?  With Democrats regaining control of the State Legislature after about 4 years as the minority party, I suppose it should not be overly surprising that Democrats are aggressively pushing several pieces of legislation that cater to its base.  Readers might recall that in February, the Colorado Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the Equal Pay for Equal Work Act which seeks to prohibit employers in the state from discriminating between employees on the basis of sex (or on the basis of sex in combination with another protected status) by paying an employee of one sex a wage rate less than the wage rate paid to an employee of a different sex for substantially similar work. 

As for Senate Bill 19-188, the Family Medical Leave Insurance Program, this piece of legislation seeks to provide partial wage replacement benefits to an eligible employee who takes leave from work to care for a new child or family member with a serious health condition, because the employee is unable to work because of his/her own serious health condition, because the employee or a family member is a victim of abusive behavior, or due to certain needs arising from a family member's active duty service.

The legislation proposes that each employee and employer in the state would pay 1/2 the cost of a premium, with the specific premium based on a percentage of the employee's yearly wages.  The premiums would be deposited into the family and medical leave insurance fund and the family and medical leave benefits would then be paid to eligible individuals from that fund.

While this legislation was a major campaign point among Democrats in the state, it is currently tied up in the Colorado Senate Finance Committee while the exact amount of how much employers should contribute (and whether businesses and local governments with similar programs can opt out) is sorted out.  From reports, the Finance Committee will consider Senate Bill 19-188 again this month.


For a copy of Senate Bill 19-188:  https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2019A/bills/2019a_188_01.pdf

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

NLRB: Discussion Among Employees About Tip Pooling is Protected Concerted Activity

  This Advice Memorandum from the National Labor Relations Board’s Associate General Counsel, Jayme Sophir, addressed whether employees which discussed and complained about tip pooling at work constituted protected concerted activity. In relevant part, an employer in New York operated a chain of steakhouses.  While tip pooling was in place at these steakhouses, some of the employees objected to it on the grounds that it was not transparent and improperly divided tips among the workers.  Employees were told not to complain or talk to each other about the tip pool and were told that doing so would endanger their jobs.  Despite the employer later attempting to provide some clarity as to how the tips were being divided, rancor still existed among some employees.  At one point, the employees were told by a general manager that some employees that had been talking about the tip pool were “cleared out” and the employer would continue to do so. In the Advice Memorandum,...
Post a Comment
Read more

San Diego Rolls Back Vaccine Mandate For City Workers

Last Tuesday, the San Diego City Council voted to do away with the vaccine mandate for city employees. The city’s vaccine mandate that was in place required city workers to get the coronavirus vaccine or risk termination.  Perhaps to this surprise of no one, the city’s policy came under fire with 14 employees being terminated and over 100 other employees resigning.  With the coronavirus subsiding, including in Southern California, the San Diego City Council took action. Now, bear in mind, the repeal of the vaccine mandate does not take place immediately. With that being said, the mandate will be repealed March 8th.  I suppose the question now is, what other cities or regions follow San Diego’s lead? For additional information:   https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/politics/story/2023-01-24/san-diego-repeals-controversial-covid-19-vaccine-mandate-citing-drop-in-cases-hospitalizations
Post a Comment
Read more

NLRB: Former Employee Cannot Be Barred From Work Premises After Filing Wage Suit

MEI-GSR Holdings, LLC - NLRB Facts :  MEI-GSR Holdings, LLC d/b/a Grand Sierra Resort & Casino ("GSR") operated a facility that included a hotel, casino, restaurant, clubs, bars, and a pool which were all open to the general public.  Tiffany Sargent ("Sargent") was briefly employed by GSR as a "beverage supervisor" in December of 2012.  After her employment ended, Sargent continued to socialize at one of the clubs.  GSR had a long standing practice of allowing former employees to patronize its facility and did not prohibit Sargent from doing so.  In June of 2013, Sargent and another employee filed a class and collective action against GSR for alleged unpaid wages, in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act and Nevada law.  In July of 2014, GSR denied Sargent access to an event at one of the clubs.  GSR followed up with a letter and stated that with the on-going litigation (from the wage suit), it decided to bar Sargent from the premises. ...
1 comment
Read more