DENVER – Colorado Governor Jared Polis announced that government employees who have worked for the government for at least a year will soon be entitled to up to two weeks of paid family vacation.
The program was announced on Monday and is scheduled to start in January. This gives workers 80 hours to recover from illness, care for a new child, or care for a loved one, the Denver Post reported.
“One of the core values of my administration is helping families,” said Polis, a Democrat. “I’m proud to say that paid vacation is now becoming a reality for government employees, many of whom have worked day and night over the past year.”
Joint Budget Committee chairman and Democratic State senator Dominick Moreno said the move was “just a bridge” until the paid family and sick leave program is fully implemented.
Colorado voters approved a paid family and sick leave program for all workers for up to 12 weeks in November, but it won’t come into effect until 2024. Government employees can take two weeks of paid vacation until the expansion in 2024.
Polis had previously tried to get the Joint Committee on Budgets to approve a more comprehensive eight-week vacation program, but it was rejected in March because the governor was not empowered to set up the program.
Polis argued that his law firm had authority to approve the program through the Department of Personnel and Administration and was awaiting further analysis from the Colorado Attorney General.
Hilary Glasgow, executive director of the state workers’ union Colorado WINS, described the new program as “a step in the right direction” as the group seeks to negotiate its first contract with the state.
“Expanded benefits to the people on the forefront of the COVID response, regardless of skin color or paycheck size, are at the core of Colorado WINS ‘partnership with the state,” she said.
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