STUDY STATE GOV'T WORK WITHOUT BENEFITS

HM007

HOUSE MEMORIAL 7

57
th 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.