New Mexico Statutes Chapter 50. Employment Law § 50-16-3. Accumulated sick leave; application to family caregiving

A. An employer that provides eligible employees with sick leave for an eligible employee's own illness or injury or to receive health care shall permit its eligible employees to use accrued sick leave to care for their family members in accordance with the same terms and procedures that the employer imposes for any other use of sick leave by eligible employees.

B. An eligible employee's employer shall not discharge or threaten to discharge, demote, suspend or retaliate or discriminate in any manner, including using the employee's use of caregiver leave as a factor in the employee's performance evaluation, against an eligible employee because that employee requests or uses caregiver leave in accordance with the employer's general sick leave policy, files a complaint with the workforce solutions department for violation of the Caregiver Leave Act, cooperates in an investigation or prosecution of an alleged violation of the Caregiver Leave Act or opposes any policy or practice established pursuant to the Caregiver Leave Act.

C. Nothing in this section shall require an employer to provide sick leave to its employees.

D. The provisions of the Caregiver Leave Act are nonexclusive and cumulative and are in addition to any other rights or remedies afforded by contract or under other provision of law. The Caregiver Leave Act does not prohibit an employer from providing greater sick leave benefits than are provided pursuant to that act.

E. The secretary of workforce solutions shall adopt and promulgate rules to implement the provisions of the Caregiver Leave Act. These rules shall include, at a minimum, grievance procedures for according eligible employees recourse for violations of the Caregiver Leave Act.