Colorado legislative employment law update 2017

The Colorado legislature has closed out its 2017 session. This year’s crop of new employment laws was relatively mild. Highlights included the following:

• HB17-1214 enhances the Colorado Office of Economic Development’s ability to facilitate employee ownership of existing business. As owners of many business find themselves wanting to retire from their businesses,  the legislature hopes COED will now be better able to help employees to take over ownership.
• SB17-189 provides employers who need to do background checks involving fingerprints more options than the law enforcement agencies previously permitted.
• HB17-1021 provides that the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment can release to the public information about employers who have violated state wage laws, but continues to prohibit CDOLE from releasing a company’s trade secrets. Before disclosing information about a company, CDOLE will now provide the employer 20-day notice, allowing it time to object if it believes any information to be disclosed is a trade secret.
• HB17-1269 expands the reach of preexisting law, which (like the federal National Labor Relations Act) prohibited employers from in turn prohibiting their workers from discussing their wages, hours and working conditions. This bill expands that state law beyond the NLRA to cover even employers who are not subject to the NLRA.
• HB17-1119 enhances the penalties employers face if they fail to obtain workers compensation coverage for their employees.
• HB17-1229 fleshes out Colorado’s workers compensation law in regard to mental impairment. It confirms that mental impairment is usually not a recoverable injury, especially when it is the consequence of aspects of the employment relationship, including discharge and discipline. However, workers compensation benefits may be available the mental impairment suffered as a result of a work-related traumatic event.

Failed legislation included the following:

• HB17-1305 would have brought ban-the-box to Colorado. Ban-the-box laws are being introduced across the country as a way to prohibit employers from asking about an applicant’s criminal history.
• HB17-1001 would brought back parental leave for children’s academic events (so-called parent-teacher conference leave). In 2009, Colorado passed such a law, but it expired in September 2015 and hasn’t since been revived.