Through the fall of 2022, OSHA area offices in Colorado, Montana, and South Dakota will undertake the Weekend Work initiative to open workplace safety and health inspections on Saturdays and Sundays. The initiative, announced...more
When an employee leaves their position in Colorado for any reason, employers are required to provide notice of unemployment benefits. This notice requirement is now expanded to include specific provisions. Colorado recently...more
Colorado recently expanded whistleblower protections at the state law level – and employers need to make sure their health and safety protocols are fully compliant if they want to avoid costly litigation. Under the new law...more
All employers in Colorado have been required to provide public health emergency (PHE) leave since January 1, 2021 – and your obligation to do so will continue through at least this summer due to a recent extension. Under...more
The Supreme Court blocked OSHA from enforcing the vaccine mandate-or-test ETS and the agency responded Tuesday by shelving the emergency rule altogether. In some ways, these two developments mean that the pathway for...more
The Supreme Court just blocked OSHA’s vaccine ETS from being enforced for the foreseeable future, meaning your compliance to-do list has gotten significantly shorter – but it has by no means disappeared. While today’s 6 to 3...more
As of January 1, 2022, all Colorado employers – regardless of size – are subject to traditional paid sick leave requirements thanks to the Healthy Families and Workplaces Act. Additionally, public health emergency leave is...more
In one of the more shocking developments in a year full of surprises, a federal appeals court breathed new life into the Biden administration’s mandate-or-test emergency vaccine rule with a stunning Friday afternoon decision....more
Federal workplace safety officials just released the mandate-or-test workplace vaccine emergency rule, and employers are sure to have questions. The Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) developed by the Occupational Safety and...more
11/5/2021
/ Best Practices ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Covered Employer ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employer Mandates ,
Employment Policies ,
Federal Contractors ,
Healthcare Workers ,
Joint Employers ,
OSHA ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Recordkeeping Requirements ,
Religious Accommodation ,
Remote Working ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Unions ,
Vaccinations ,
Virus Testing ,
Workplace Illness and Injury Reporting ,
Workplace Safety
Companies concerned with the latest focal point of corporate governance are paying attention to human capital – and have started to recognize that one of the cornerstones of this initiative includes a commitment to employee...more
Both the State of Colorado and the City of Denver have recently issued mandatory vaccine policies for certain segments of worker populations – and your organization may be soon required to enforce such a mandate. While the...more
9/9/2021
/ Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employment Policies ,
Health and Safety ,
Healthcare Workers ,
Hospitals ,
Infectious Diseases ,
Nursing Homes ,
Private Schools ,
Public Health ,
Public Schools ,
State Contractors ,
Vaccinations ,
Workplace Safety
The Colorado Supreme Court issued its long-awaited decision on vacation pay yesterday, ruling that an employer must pay an employee’s earned but unused vacation pay upon separation from employment – and any agreement or...more
6/15/2021
/ CO Supreme Court ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Employment Policies ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Paid Time Off (PTO) ,
State Labor Laws ,
Vacation Leave ,
Vacation Pay ,
Wage and Hour
Now that most states, the CDC, and OSHA have (or may soon) lift mask mandates for vaccinated workers, what is an employer to do about revealing an employee’s vaccination status? Under any relaxed masking guidance applicable...more
The announcement yesterday from the CDC that fully vaccinated people no longer need to wear a mask or physically distance in any non-healthcare setting was a welcome relief for all Americans and a hopeful sign that we have...more
Now that the country is on course to see all adult Americans eligible for COVID-19 vaccination in a matter of days, and an increasing number of employees are returning to the workplace, vaccination status is likely to be an...more
The new administration wasted no time in announcing its plan for tackling the COVID-19 pandemic, releasing a roadmap on January 21 on how it plans to address the crisis. The plan includes 12 initial executive actions, many of...more
1/25/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Health and Safety ,
Infectious Diseases ,
Masks ,
Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) ,
OSHA ,
Personal Protective Equipment ,
Social Distancing ,
Vaccinations ,
Workplace Safety
Right before the Christmas holiday, the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment (CDLE) released new guidance requiring that all employers supply up to an additional 80 hours of Public Health Emergency Paid Sick Leave to...more
When the pandemic first began, most employees were ready to pitch in and do their part to help reduce the spread of COVID-19. They adapted to remote working while attending to their children. Others understood they were...more
The Cal/OSHA Standards Board just adopted an emergency standard related to COVID-19 prevention in the workplace, imposing some significant requirements on California employers. Most notably, the new rule finalized yesterday...more
11/20/2020
/ Cal-OSHA ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employer Responsibilities ,
Employment Policies ,
Health and Safety ,
Infectious Diseases ,
Masks ,
New Rules ,
Notification Requirements ,
Paid Leave ,
Paid Time Off (PTO) ,
Personal Protective Equipment ,
Quarantine ,
Return-to-Work Agreements ,
Sick Employees ,
Sick Leave ,
Social Distancing ,
Virus Testing ,
Workplace Illness and Injury Reporting ,
Workplace Safety
Colorado voters passed Proposition 118 yesterday, creating Paid Family and Medical Leave obligations for all employers in the state. This initiative mandates that employers provide 12 weeks of leave for Colorado employees,...more
It’s hard to keep up with all the recent changes to labor and employment law. While the law always seems to evolve at a rapid pace, there have been an unprecedented number of changes for the past few years—and this past month...more
9/10/2020
/ Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) ,
Independent Contractors ,
Medical Leave ,
Misclassification ,
NLRB ,
Paid Leave ,
Payroll Taxes ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Remote Working ,
Telecommuting ,
Unemployment Benefits ,
Wage and Hour ,
Wrongful Death
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission recently released two new technical assistance documents that address issues concerning the employment provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act in relation to the use of...more
8/14/2020
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Disability Discrimination ,
Drug Testing ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Health and Safety ,
Health Care Providers ,
Hiring & Firing ,
New Guidance ,
Opioid ,
Prescription Drugs ,
Reasonable Accommodation
Fall protection in construction is one of the most cited OSHA standards across all industries, with fall protection training in construction being the eighth most-cited. More importantly, falls constitute more than a third of...more
Colorado now joins the growing number of states requiring most employers to provide paid sick leave – not only extending COVID-19-related sick leave protections to take effect immediately, but also creating a traditional paid...more
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) released a Guidance on Returning to Work document that describes strategies and recommends steps employers should take during all phases of reopening. Most of OSHA’s...more
6/19/2020
/ Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employer Responsibilities ,
Health and Safety ,
Infectious Diseases ,
New Guidance ,
OSHA ,
Re-Opening Guidelines ,
Recordkeeping Requirements ,
Return-to-Work Agreements ,
Risk Assessment ,
Sick Employees ,
Virus Testing ,
Workplace Hazards ,
Workplace Illness and Injury Reporting ,
Workplace Safety