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Colorado’s new Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI) program is here!
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Hello Local Government Employers,
As a local governmental employer that exercised its right to opt out of premium collections, you still have obligations to comply with the law and help create a successful family-leave program that meets the needs of workers across the state. The FAMLI Division at the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment is here to help!
Here’s a quick rundown of your responsibilities after you opt out, plus some tools available to help:
- Every local government employer must register with FAMLI’s online system, even agencies that chose not to participate in FAMLI. We built a guide with step-by-step instructions just for local governments to register here.
- You’ve (hopefully!) already let your employees know in writing about your decision to opt out of FAMLI. Local government employers that opted out are required to let their employees know about their options to participate in FAMLI voluntarily. We’ve created a customizable template you can adjust to the needs of your organization to meet this obligation. We also have a handy breakroom poster and employee fact sheet that can help.
- Regardless of your participation in FAMLI, you are still required to post the Required Program Notice.
- If you plan to support employees who voluntarily choose to participate in FAMLI by facilitating their payroll deductions and submitting their wage data to the Division every quarter, you do not need to make any deductions until those employees can voluntarily self-elect coverage when benefits become available in 2024.
- Don’t forget that you also must notify new hires and any employee dealing with a situation that may be eligible for FAMLI leave about their rights to access FAMLI benefits once benefits become available in 2024.
- Let’s say you plan to make a change on FAMLI participation. Local governments must give employees 180 days’ notice before any change regarding access to FAMLI benefits is effective. This will allow workers to make arrangements to self-elect coverage, if they wish to do so. Benefits do not become available until 2024, so this 180 day timeline does not apply in the first half of 2023 because there will be no change in FAMLI benefits until 2024.
- Don’t miss our updated Local Governments Guide available here. More details are available on the Local Governments page of famli.colorado.gov.
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Employees of local governments that have opted out do not need to take any action to self-elect FAMLI coverage until benefits become available in 2024.
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