HOUSE MEMORIAL 7

57th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - second session, 2026

INTRODUCED BY

Patricia Roybal Caballero

 

 

 

 

 

A MEMORIAL

REQUESTING A STUDY AND REPORT ON THE USE OF EMPLOYMENT CLASSIFICATIONS THAT RESULT IN LONG-TERM WORK WITHOUT BENEFITS OR EMPLOYEE PROTECTIONS IN NEW MEXICO STATE GOVERNMENT.

 

     WHEREAS, New Mexico's ability to recruit and retain a stable, skilled public workforce depends on total compensation, including wages and benefits, and the legislative finance committee has noted that benefits are a material share of overall compensation; and

     WHEREAS, Deloitte's work for the legislative finance committee identified compensation, flexibility to work remotely and work environment as leading drivers of state employee attrition and identified high vacancy rates and reduced capacity tied to compensation and agency budget constraints; and

     WHEREAS, New Mexico law uses the term "regular nonprobationary employee" as a key threshold for who counts as a public employee for collective bargaining purposes, which threshold can create strong incentives to classify work in ways that avoid "regular" status and related protections; and

     WHEREAS, the Personnel Act exempts "employees of a professional or scientific nature which are temporary in nature", yet certain state agencies and the state personnel office are using this language to deny employees who are of neither a professional nor scientific nature access to the rights afforded to all other employees in the classified service; and

     WHEREAS, the personnel board rules define a temporary appointment as the employment of a candidate in a position created for a duration of less than one year, in which the employee does not have to complete a probationary period and is subject to termination without appeal, but should be afforded all other benefits outlined in personnel board rule, other than military leave, although some public employees are not being afforded equitable pay increases, sick or annual leave, insurance coverage or other benefits afforded under personnel board rule; and

     WHEREAS, concerns persist that some public workers are repeatedly separated and rehired, sometimes with a break as short as one work day, in ways that may functionally evade job protections, their right to organize and long-term workforce stability; and

     WHEREAS, these practices can cause predictable harms, including disruption of health coverage, loss of leave accrual continuity, suppressed wages, reduced retirement readiness and destabilized household finances, with disproportionate impacts on lower wage workers and workers in public-facing service roles, which raises environmental justice and humanitarian concerns when the same communities already carry heavier burdens;

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the legislative council service, in coordination with the state personnel office, the department of finance and administration and the general services department, be requested to contract for a study and report on the use of employment classifications and appointment practices in executive branch agencies that result in long-term work without access to standard benefits or employee protections, including any patterns of repeated separations and rehires that prevent workers from reaching eligibility thresholds for benefits or regular status; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the report include, at minimum:

          A. a statewide count, by agency and job family, of workers in temporary, term, seasonal, casual, on-call or other nonregular categories, including average tenure, cumulative years worked and frequency and length of breaks in service;

          B. an estimate of the fiscal impact of extending benefit eligibility to workers who meet objective work thresholds, including health insurance, leave and retirement- related costs, alongside administrative costs and expected savings from improved retention and reduced turnover;

          C. identification of the statutory, rule, statewide human resources accounting reporting system coding or policy gaps that allow repeated nonregular employment over multiple years, and proposed options to close those gaps, including enforcement mechanisms and audit triggers; and

          D. an equity impact section describing which workers are most affected by category and geography, including impacts on rural service delivery and high-need communities; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the legislative council service be requested to submit the report to the legislative finance committee and the appropriate interim legislative committees no later than November 1, 2026; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be transmitted to the director of the legislative council service, the director of the state personnel office, the secretary of finance and administration and the secretary of general services.