SHARE:  
January 3, 2022
Information about Boulder County Fires

COLORADO RESPONDS - https://www.coloradoresponds.org 

Colorado Responds is the leading resource for individuals giving and agencies seeking help in the face of a disaster. There is an expected need for donations & volunteers soon. As responding agencies begin to take action, more information will become available on what materials and volunteers are needed. Sign up to learn how best to help individuals impacted by the Boulder County Fires here.

DONATIONS: www.Boulderoem.com
 
CALL CENTER FOR INFORMATION REQUEST: (303) 413-7730

CDPHE / CDPS Collaboration
Real Time Information from Home Care Agencies to Help with Evacuations with Boulder County Fires

The Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment and the Colorado Department of Public Safety sought help from Colorado home care agencies and hospice organizations regarding the evacuation of health facilities in response to the Boulder County fires.

These state agencies identified resources from you, the Colorado Home Care community for accessible transportation and/or bed availability.

Bonnie Silva, Director, Office of Community Living, created a linked Google sheet to gather information: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1vy0i-v_UHJWc6p9qYSWktz1Gxh9xFyB_33EXd58niYo/edit#gid=0


PAID TIME OFF MEASURES, DIFFERENT TIMETABLES & PAYMENT RATES CREATE CONFUSION
MINIMUM WAGE STARTING JAN. 1, 2022
Federal minimum wage is currently $7.25 per hour, which is lower than the 2022 Colorado state minimum wage of $12.56
DENVER MINIMUM WAGE
City-wide Minimum Wage: $15.87/hour in 2022 - DENVER INFO TO WAGES
DIRECT CARE WORKERS - STATE-WIDE
Starting January 1, 2022, direct care workers funded with any state dollars working in-home and community-based settings are to receive a minimum wage of $15 per hour. The Medicaid rate increase needed to achieve this will be initially funded through federal American Rescue Plan Act funds dedicated to Home and Community-Based Services. 
HCPF 2022 RATE SCHEDULES https://hcpf.colorado.gov/sites/hcpf/files/EBD%20CMHS%20BI%20SCI%20January%202021-2022%20Rate%20Schedules%20v1.1.pdf


SICK LEAVE
Two types of paid sick leave are in effect for all companies in 2022
PAID SICK LEAVE
Paid sick leave — Larger employers had to comply with this law in 2021. In 2022, all employers — including those with 15 or fewer employees — must offer workers a way to earn sick leave at the rate of one hour for 30 hours worked. Up to 48 hours unused accrued leave, if unused, carries into the next year.
COVID-related LEAVE
80 hours of COVID-related leave continues into 2022. The COVID leave requirement ends four weeks after all disaster orders and public health emergencies are over. But the 80 hours doesn’t restart in January. If a worker used any of the 80 hours last year, only the remainder can be tapped in 2022. 
2022 PAID FAMILY LEAVE LAW DETAILS
New paid family and medical leave doesn’t start until Jan. 1, 2024. It was passed by Colorado voters in 2020 and requires employers to provide 12 weeks of paid family leave plus an extra four weeks in case there are medical complications. Employers will have to start paying into the system in 2023. 

Workers can still benefit from 12 weeks of unpaid leave, as part of the Family Medical Leave Act. This is available to new parents or people with serious health problems or relatives they must care for. Workers are entitled to at least 480 hours of unpaid family medical leave — and keep their job. >> U.S. FMLA Act labor laws

EQUAL PAY FOR EQUAL WORK ACT
The Act https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/sb19-085- Requires employers to:
  • Post pay and salary ranges for job openings.
  • Announce to all employees employment advancement opportunities and job openings and the pay range for the openings.
  • Maintain records of job descriptions and wage rate history for each employee while employed and for 2 years after the employment ends. Failure to maintain these records creates a rebuttable presumption, in a lawsuit alleging wage discrimination based on sex, that the records not maintained contained information favorable to the employee's claim.

The act prohibits an employer from:
  • Seeking the wage rate history of a prospective employee or requiring disclosure of wage rate as a condition of employment;
  • Relying on a prior wage rate to determine a wage rate;
  • Discriminating or retaliating against a prospective employee for failing to disclose the employee's wage rate history;
  • Discharging or retaliating against an employee for actions by an employee asserting the rights established by the act against an employer; or
  • Discharging, disciplining, discriminating against, or otherwise interfering with an employee for inquiring about, disclosing, or discussing the employee's wage rate.


CDLE
CDLE CONTACT NUMBERS - https://cdle.colorado.gov/unemployment/contact-us

2022 POSTER
Colorado Department of Labor and Employment updated its 2022 poster for its workplace public health rights, it added an asterisk and red fonts to note that there is still “a qualifying emergency” as of January 2022. 

COVID-related LABOR LAWS
“The 80-hour COVID leave will end only when all disaster emergency orders, state or federal, end — and that hasn’t happened yet,” says Scott Moss, director of the Division of Labor Standards and Statistics in the state labor department. Source: https://coloradosun.com/2021/12/28/vaccine-mandates-paid-covid-sick-leave-laws/
NATION-WIDE
Nationwide, the Biden administration ordered certain health care workers and private companies with 100 or more employees to get staff fully vaccinated or tested weekly by Jan. 10. The rule was challenged and then reinstated by a federal appeals panel on Dec. 17. But everything could change again after the U.S. Supreme Court hears challenges to some of Biden’s mandates on Jan. 7
DENVER
the city and county of Denver will maintain current vaccination requirements for city employees, workers in high-risk settings and city contractors,” Courtney Ronner, a spokeswoman for the Denver Public Health & Environment department, said in an email. “Businesses not subject to the vaccination public health order have the flexibility to mandate their own vaccine requirements and those policies/procedures are maintained by those specific businesses.”
COLORADO STATE-WIDE
There’s no statewide vaccine mandate in Colorado for all private employers outside of health care staff in settings with high risk patients and the pending federal rule overseen by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. And some small employers with fewer than 100 employees may not fall under any sort of federal or local mandate. (Here are links to current vaccine mandates in Colorado).
MASK MANDATES
In Colorado, areas with indoor mask mandates for private employers include the counties of Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Denver, Eagle, Jefferson, Larimer, Pitkin and San Miguel. Broomfield County’s mask mandate applies only in city and county buildings.
NOTICE
CHC ADMINISTRATOR TRAINING CERTIFICATES USE UTC Time
WHAT IS UTC?
UTC—Coordinated Universal Time—is the 24-hour time standard used as a basis for civil time today, and all time zones are defined by their offset from UTC. The offset is expressed as either UTC- or UTC+ and the number of hours and minutes.
EFFECT
Mountain Time, MT - MST(UTC-7) - Administrator / Manager training certificates are dated seven hours later. For some of you, that will change the date to 1/1/2022 from 12/31/2021.

Thank you for reading!
connie@chctrain.com ~ (303) 548-4310
www.homehealthcerts.com ~ www.getcompliant.us