When Ryan Tartar’s daughter Sunny was born, he was excited to take time off work to bond with her. Thanks to Colorado’s FAMLI program, workers in the state can take up to 12 weeks of paid leave within a year following a child’s birth.
Tartar applied for leave and received an email on March 13 from the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment (CDLE) saying he’d been approved. The same day his employer had been notified and decided to fire him. “I am forced to let you go in order to replace you with an employee that will show up reliably and on time,” his boss wrote in the email that evening
“It was extremely disappointing,” Tartar told 9NEWS Steve On Your Side. “That the firing would have happened and then the grievance on top of it seems very retaliatory.”
Despite being terminated, Tartar still thought he was eligible for the program. H claims he contacted the state several times to verify his eligibility and was assured he would receive payments. Two weeks later, he and his family set off on a road trip to introduce his daughter to the rest of the family. For four weeks, he received weekly payments.
But before the fifth payment hit his account, Tartar received a notification from the program stating that his ex-employer had filed a grievance and he was deemed ineligible for the program.
“Then I get another email back like the next day saying that I need to pay back what I had been receiving or I’ve had received so far,” he said. “So, I mean, in the middle of our road trip, that was a big hit.”
Colorado’s Family and Medical Leave Insurance Program, or FAMLI, is funded by a fee of 0.9% of the employee’s wage, which is split between the employers and employees. The act allows workers to apply for leave after the birth of a child, for medical issues, to care for a family member, and domestic violence victims escaping their abusers. The Colorado Department of Employment told Steve on Your Side that 50,000 parents have applied for up to 12 weeks of paid leave since the program launched in January.
It also offers job protection while an employee is on leave to prevent retaliation — or it’s supposed to. The site also directs users to file a complaint if they experience retaliation and states employers who act unlawfully may be liable for monetary damages and to rehire workers they retaliate against.
