During the 2020 Regular Session, the Colorado legislature passed the Healthy Families and Workplaces Act, requiring employers to provide paid sick leave to their employees at a rate of 1 hour of sick leave for every 30 hours worked.

This policy will have no effect on employees already covered by the University of Colorado’s sick leave policy. Instead, this expanded sick leave coverage will largely affect part-time employees who average fewer than 20 hours per week.

Because many part-time employees have varied schedules, the university has opted to calculate the new sick leave coverage at roughly .034 hours per hour worked, instead of having 1 full hour accrue only after 30 hours have been clocked.

Employees covered by the new sick leave policy will be able to carry up to 48 hours of sick leave from one fiscal year to the next. Review of leave balances and any adjustments will be conducted during the regular employee leave sweep process.

Additionally, employees will only be able to use 48 hours of sick leave within one fiscal year, regardless of how much leave they have banked.

All employees already covered by CU’s regular sick leave policy will be unaffected by these changes and carryover and usage limits.

Resources to track and use leave

Many employees who’ve not been leave-eligible before now will likely be unfamiliar with the process of checking their leave balance and using their leave. Likewise, supervisors who have only worked with non-leave eligible direct reports may be unfamiliar with the review and approval process.

This webpage and FAQ will address many of the most common questions, and existing guides and resources can help employees navigate the leave request and approval process in the My Leave timekeeping system:

• My Leave Basics
• My Leave for Supervisors
• My Leave for Supervisors (Skillsoft course)
• My Leave Frequently Asked Questions
• Administrative Policy Statement on Leave (Note: The CU Board of Regents are expected to approve leave policy changes in early 2021, to align CU’s policies with state law.)

However, these guides aren’t one-size-fits-all. Not every CU department uses My Leave to track employee time. If you have any questions not addressed by these user guides and FAQ, please reach out to your campus HR office.

As this change goes into effect, additional information and resources will be available for employees and supervisors on the this webpage.