As you may know, Colorado’s Healthy Families and Workplaces Act provides sick leave to all employees in the state of Colorado. At CU this new law expanded sick leave to part-time and temporary employees who were not previously covered by CU’s sick leave plan.

The act also includes a provision to provide up to 80 hours of paid emergency sick leave to all employees. This leave can only be used during a declared public health emergency for qualified absences.

How to use emergency sick leave

The HFWA’s emergency sick leave provision provides paid sick leave that will not count against your personal sick leave balance. However, this leave is only available for use during a declared public health emergency for specific absences. Likewise, the 80-hour maximum may be reduced for some employees who are not on full-time schedules or who had available sick leave balances when the emergency was declared.

Read this detailed post for more information.

Three new earnings codes have been created allowing employees to use this emergency sick leave. Employees who need to use their emergency leave should use one of the following codes based on their pay schedule:

• Biweekly hourly employees who are unable to work due to COVID-19 should enter their normally scheduled hours using code PEH (Paid Emergency Sick Hourly).
• Monthly paid employees, both salaried and hourly, who are unable to work due to COVID-19 should enter their normally scheduled hours using code PES (Paid Emergency Sick Salaried).
• Contract employees who are unable to work due to COVID-19 should enter their normally scheduled hours using code PEC (Paid Emergency Contract Salaried).

Verifying your leave balances

A new tile in the employee portal allows CU student and part-time employees to check their leave balances.

Newly eligible employees will earn roughly .034 hours of sick leave per hour worked. They may use 48 hours of sick leave per fiscal year, regardless of how much leave they have banked, and may carry a maximum of 48 hours of sick leave from one fiscal year to the next.

Employees who are already eligible for paid leave can still find their leave balances in the “My Leave” module of their employee portal. All employees, including those newly eligible for the state sick leave plan, can use the new “Leave Balances” tile to view their leave usage and available balance.

Note: The state’s emergency sick leave will not be visible in the employee portal or any timekeeping system. Please ask your supervisor or human resources office for a report of your emergency leave balance.

Check your Leave Balance

1. Log into your employee portal, and go to the CU Resources area.
2. Click on the CU Resources Home drop-down menu at the top center of the screen and select My Info and Pay.
3. Click on the Leave Balances tile.

Employees should use their current timekeeping method (My Leave or whichever 3rd party system they use to record their work time) to use their sick leave. Anyone paid monthly will use the existing SCK (Sick Leave) earnings code, while biweekly paid employees can use the new HSK (Hourly Sick Leave) earnings code. Contract employees should contact their campus for details on reviewing or recording their sick leave.

Visit the HFWA info page for more detailed information and FAQs. These continue to be updated as new questions and details arise.