Paid Sick Leave

Paid Sick Leave

Colorado Healthy Families and Workplaces Act 

On July 14, 2020, the Colorado Healthy Families & Workplaces Act was signed into law. The law is effective beginning January 1, 2021. This new law requires all employers with 16 or more employees to provide sick leave to all employees at designated accrual rates. This does not change accrual rates for employees who were previously eligible for leave benefits. However, employees in temporary positions or other positions previously excluded from sick leave eligibility will begin to accrue leave under this state law. This new law does not affect employees currently covered under the standard sick leave policy, including university and classified staff, 12-month faculty, and 9-month faculty for whom sick leave is tracked within the department.

Student Employees

  • Each employee will earn one hour of sick leave per 30 hours worked.
  • This breaks down to approximately .034 hours per hour worked for hourly employees.
  • Hourly employees will record both hours worked and leave taken in MyLeave. Hours must be approved by the supervisor.
  • Accruals will display in the system at the conclusion of each pay period (bi-weekly or monthly).
  • Leave will be earned across all eligible positions and may be used to take leave from any eligible position.
  • Employees may not use more leave time than hours they are scheduled to work.
  • Eligible employees will be able to carry a maximum of 48 hours of sick leave from one fiscal year to the next.

 

Paid Sick Leave FAQs

 

Frequently Asked Questions
How much leave will I accrue?

Student Hourly Employees

Hourly Student employees accrue leave at a rate of 0.034 sick hours for each hour worked.  Accrual hours are calculated as part of the payroll process. and become available once payroll has processed the pay period.

1500 Series Student Employee Contracts

Contract employees (1500 series, part-time) are provided a proration of sick hours at the beginning of each fall, spring, and summer semester calculated based on percent of time.

How do I view my sick leave balance?

Student Hourly Employees

The CU Leave Accrual Summary Page is visible to all student hourly employees beginning in 2021 and allows an employee to see a full history of leave accrual, including their current balance and historical usage.  The CU Leave Accrual Summary Page can be accessed from the portal Employee Self Service page using the "Leave Balances" tile.  The leave balance will also be displayed in MyLeave.

1500 Series Student Employee Contracts

Contact Student Employment for leave balance information at stuemp@uccs.edu

How do I record sick leave?

Student Hourly Employees

Student employees, paid in the biweekly pay group, will have a new Earnings Code – Hourly Sick Leave – that will pay the employee for absence time covered by the state sick leave plan as long as they have an available balance to use.  The student employee will enter HSK – Hourly Sick Leave to record the sick leave taken.

1500 Series Student Employee Contracts

Sick leave requests may be submitted  for approval via a sick leave request form located here.

Does work study pay for sick leave?

Work-study rules do not allow for the funding of sick leave. Unlike other recorded time, students’ use of sick leave will not apply to the work-study. This leave will apply to the student’s default position funding unless a SpeedType override is applied.

What happens if I don't have enough sick leave hours to cover my absence?

Student employees should never request more leave than they have accrued. Requesting more hours than you have available will result in your pay being docked. It is better to take unpaid time than to request more hours than you currently have available. We recommend that you check your Leave Balance tile before entering any sick leave to ensure you are requesting hours within your current balance.

As an example, let's say that you are missing a 4-hour shift. You check your leave balance and see that you only have 3.68 hours accrued. You would enter 3.5 hours as HSK - Hourly Sick Leave since MyLeave only allows for time entries in 15 minute increments. You would not record any time for the other 30 minutes of your shift that you would be missing. This ensures that you receive payment via sick leave for the 3.5 hours you requested and will be unpaid for the other 30 minutes. However, it also prevents your pay being docked for the 0.32 hours you would have requested beyond what was available to you if you entered the full 4 hours as HSK.