ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – The state’s new paid sick leave act has been in effect for more than a month now, but KRQE News 13 has learned not everyone is getting it. There’s an exception that lawmakers created on purpose.
Seasonal and temporary workers who work for the city and the state aren’t covered in the Healthy Workplaces Act. “What the law provides is all people who work for private employers have the right to accrue paid sick leave as they work,” says Stephanie Welch, director of worker’s rights at the New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty. Welch says without this law, employers just weren’t giving their workers paid sick leave.
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However, a bill that began with the intention to ensure all employees in New Mexico had the ability to address their health ended up leaving out public employees. According to the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions, more than 176,000 New Mexicans were classified as working for some level of government. Their exemption from this legal mandate means they have to rely on local policies or agreements to get covered. “If you can’t afford to stay home then you have to go to work and then you put risk to yourself and everybody else,” Welch says.
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