COVID - 19 in Colorado - Key Takeaways

Almost overnight we have seen some significant changes in how agencies, businesses, school districts, and others are responding to COVID – 19 here in CO. We are closely monitoring information and are hoping to present the most updated information we have available.

Colorado HELP

In a posting, from Colin Walker, Legislative Director for COSHRM (Colorado Society of Human Resource Management State Council) shared that on Wednesday, March 11, 2020, the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment (“CDLE”) issued the Colorado Health Emergency Leave with Pay (“Colorado HELP”) Rules, which require employers in certain industries to provide up to four days of paid leave for employees who are being tested for Coronavirus.

The covered industries are:

• Leisure and Hospitality

• Food Services

• Childcare

• Education, including transportation, food service, and related work at educational establishments

• Home health, if working with elderly, disabled, ill, or otherwise high-risk individuals

• Nursing homes

• Community living facilities

Pay Requirements include:

An employee being tested must be paid his/her regular rate of pay for the employee’s regularly worked hours.

If pay cannot be determined, based on fluctuating pay, the employee should receive wages of the average of pay for the previous month.

Timeline:

The requirement to pay the employee ends upon receiving a negative COVID – 19 test.

It also does not apply to those employees who are quarantined after receiving a positive test. The rules will remain in effect for 30 days after March 11, 2020, up to a maximum of 120 days through the duration of the state of emergency declared by Governor Polis.

More information is available on the CDLE website. You can review the entire COSHRM article by visiting the COSHRM website.

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COVID – 19 and other communicable disease policies

The safety and health of our community, schools, and workplaces are of the utmost importance. For that reason, we encourage our employers to develop good communicable disease policies for their workplace. These policies may include the following information:

• How to practice healthy workplace safety practices and provide team members with facts about COVID-19 and reminding them to follow simple, but effective steps to keep them safe such as frequent handwashing.

• Provide employees with resources to do their own education to ensure team members are receiving accurate information from organizations like WHO and the CDC.

• Explain the need for extensive cleaning and disinfecting of facilities and equipment as appropriate.

• Encourage our team members to take any signs of illness seriously and seek medical attention as needed.

• Provide sick policies that allow all workers to stay home if needed in order to limit the spread of any type of disease.

• Explain various travel restrictions and to which positions it may affect and be specific about expectations.

• Provide work from home flexibility and be ready to provide resources and tools to keep the company moving forward should the need for remote work be required.

• Communicate to clients and customers policy information which would be applicable for them.

If you are needing help drafting policies, please reach out to our team. Additional resources and guidance for how workplaces can respond to Coronavirus, are available at the CDC's website.

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School Closures and Things to Consider

We just learned Thompson School District, Poudre School District, and some Weld County School Districts are closed for 2-3 weeks. Below are things we think you should be thinking about as you prepare for some of your workforces to be limited in their ability to be at work.

• How to manage employees working remote during a business interruption

• Paying employees if we have to shut down the workplace for a period of time

• Policies for varying needs - navigating viruses in the workplace, work from home agreements, remote workforce guidelines, IT capabilities for remote work

• Communication to employees regarding potential office closures, personal travel, family needs, cybersecurity protocols, and emergency preparedness

• Unemployment and pay for your employees during disruption

• Education and credible government websites to source information from

• Establishing a business continuity plan

This is not an all-inclusive list, and HRx will do our best to keep you updated on changing information as we learn about it.