Southwest Airlines is suing the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment in federal court, claiming the state’s new sick leave law “imposes a pervasive and comprehensive paid sick leave scheme on employers.”

The airline claims it already provides generous paid sick leave to its employees and that Colorado’s sick leave policy contradicts and prevents the enforcement of the airlines’ employment contracts that were negotiated by unions.

The suit, filed last week in U.S. District Court in Denver, named Scott Moss, director of CDLE’s Division of Labor and Standards and Statistics, and Attorney General Phil Weiser as defendants.

A spokesperson for CDLE declined to comment on the lawsuit, saying that the department had not yet been served. But the spokesperson pointed to a citation that found Southwest Airlines in violation of several of Colorado’s labor laws following an investigation by the Division of Labor and Standards and Statistics.

The airline was fined $1,331,400 for violating nearly every requirement set under Senate Bill 205, which was passed in 2020 and known as the Colorado Healthy Families and Workplaces Act, according to a letter sent to Southwest Airlines in April.

A spokesman for Weiser declined to comment.

The airline employs more than 4,000 people in Denver, it said in a news release last year.

The state’s sick leave law, which took effect Jan 1, 2021, allows employees to accrue paid sick leave at the rate of one hour per 30 hours worked up to 48 hours per...

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