The Denver Business Journal quoted Sherman & Howard Labor & Employment Practice Group Leader Brooke Colaizzi in an article discussing the Protecting Opportunities and Workers’ Rights (POWR) Act, a new Colorado state law that redefines the standard for workplace harassment. The new law specifies that harassment does not need to be “severe or pervasive” to constitute a discriminatory or unfair practice.

Below is an excerpt from the article.

As a result of the legislation, human resources departments will need to re-evaluate their training, complaint reporting and investigative procedures to ensure that they capture and resolve complaints that – prior to POWR – were not legally actionable, Brooke A. Colaizzi, an attorney with the law firm Sherman & Howard told the Denver Business Journal in June.

“HR teams will now have to consider and make judgment calls about whether conduct is harassment or not under this new standard – and one that has not been flushed out by legal precedent,” Colaizzi said.

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