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Hello, everyone. This marks the beginning of the new legislative session in New Mexico. Bills have been pre-filed by both the House and Senate and given that this is a long legislative session (60 days), we expect to see a long list of workplace bills to be introduced. Below is the schedule for this year’s session:
- January 21: Opening Day
- February 20: Due Date for introduction of New Bills
- March 22: Session ends
- April 11: Legislation not acted upon by governor is pocket vetoed
- June 20: Effective date of most legislation (general appropriation bills, bills carrying an emergency clause or bills with other specified dates may differ.)
The bill which is at the forefront of many employer’s minds is the Paid Family and Medical Leave Act, HB 11. The proposed bill, similar to other proposed bills in the past, will provide for a payment to employees of public and private businesses who have employees in the state and covers certain family and medical leave related reasons in addition to military exigencies and situations related to safety reasons. As in last year’s proposals, the fund will be administered by the state. Given that the last version at the legislative session last year lost by two votes, we foresee a possibility that this bill or a similar version of it, will pass. This particular version notes that beginning in January 2027 that any employer with at least five employees will have to pay 4/10ths of a percent of the employee’s wages and the employee will pay ½ of a percent into this fund. The state will administer the payments from this fund. Employers with a substantially similar program in place may apply for a waiver.
There are a smattering of other HR related bills including the Employee Free-Speech Act, HB 66, which is intended to cover both private and public employers and which disallows “captive audience speeches” by the employer with their employees. HB 131, Healthcare Giver Background Checks, adds certain disqualifying convictions and changes the agency oversight to the Health Care Authority. The Public Employee Probation Period Act, HB 129 reduces the probationary period of certain public employees from 1 year to 180 days.
While not specifically an employment bill, the senate did propose a bill allowing out of state healthcare providers who don’t have a New Mexico telehealth license to provide second opinions and consultations. It will be interesting to see how this legislation, if passed, will affect your employees.Southwestern HR Consulting (SWHRC) will continue monitoring HR related bills during this session. Contact SWHRC today at the link above to find out more about our services and our team of experts.

Written by | Magdalena Vigil-Tullar
HR Consultant | MBA, SPHR, SHRM-SCP, CLRP
Phone: 505-270-7494 | Email: magdalena@swhrc.com
PO Box 14274 | Albuquerque, NM 87191
