The Colorado Senate approved legislation Tuesday to extend public health whistleblower protections beyond the COVID-19 pandemic, expanding on protections established in 2020.

If enacted, Senate Bill 97 would prohibit retaliation against workers for reporting any workplace health and safety concern or violation of health and safety rules – rather than only protecting reports related to a declared public health emergency. The Colorado legislature passed the existing protections in 2020 under House Bill 1415. 

“No worker should have to be worried about losing their job, or having their hours cut because they speak out about working conditions that threaten them and their colleagues,” said Sen. Robert Rodriguez, D-Denver, who sponsored the bill. “As a state, we owe it to workers to give them these protections because it keeps all of us safe.”

The Senate passed the bill in a 20-13 vote mostly along party lines, with all Republicans except for Sen. Kevin Priola of Henderson voting against the bill, and all Democrats except for Sen. Rachel Zenzinger of Arvada supporting it. The bill now heads to the House for consideration. 

Critics said the bill is unnecessary and would raise annual costs by around $700,000 by causing an increase of approximately 150 complaints filed to the state annually.

“Yes, there’s isolated incidents but … are we trying to fix something that we don’t see much evidence of?” said Sen. Larry Liston, R-Colorado Springs. “Once you get a program in place, the budget continues to grow and so does the number of full-time employees.” 

Liston said Colorado already has enough worker protections in place. Supporters of the bill disagreed.

Bill sponsor Sen. Brittany Pettersen, D-Lakewood, said the state has found 48 valid incidents of whistleblowers being retaliated against after reporting public health concerns at the workplace during the COVID-19 pandemic. Seven of the incidents resulted in settlements for the employees and 33 resulted in employees being issued a right to sue, she said.

“With the passage of HB 20-1415, we gave workers the protection to speak out about health and safety concerns without fear of retaliation only during public health emergencies,” Pettersen said. “Essential workers will still be essential after the pandemic, which is why I am proud to champion this bill.”