Source New Mexico

When New Mexicans face the life circumstances that make it impossible for them to work, there’s no guarantee that their boss will keep paying them or that they can keep their job.

A proposal to change that — which lawmakers have been talking about for decades — will return in January in the upcoming legislative session in Santa Fe.

“It’s been in the works, studied and deliberated upon in New Mexico for 20 years now,” Tracy McDaniel told a panel of state lawmakers Monday.

The federal Family Medical Leave Act already protects a worker from losing their job while they are away, but that leave is unpaid, said McDaniel, policy advocate for the Southwest Women’s Law Center.

And most workers in New Mexico can’t even apply for federal leave anyway. The federal law applies only to businesses with 50 or more employees, McDaniel said, which is 4% of all businesses in the state.

State Rep. Linda Serrato (D-Santa Fe) said the lack of protections affects new mothers, too.

“For years, we have just been expecting New Mexican parents, especially moms, to just piece together family care in those first three months of life and return to work within days of giving birth,” Serrato said at a meeting of the Legislature’s interim Economic Development and Policy Committee. “This is not sustainable, and this does not grow a healthy economy that we want to see in New Mexico that our workers and our small businesses deserve.”

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The legislation they’re championing would...

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