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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T

SPONSOR Stapleton

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

01/24/2006

2/14/2006 HB 240

SHORT TITLE

Volunteer Emergency Responder Job Termination

SB

ANALYST Moser

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY06

FY07

NFI

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

Duplicates, Relates to, Conflicts with, Companion to HB 40

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Attorney General’s Office (AG)

Department of Health (DOH)

State Personnel Office (SPO)

Department of Public Education (PED)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

The Volunteer Emergency Responder Job Termination Bill prohibits an employer from ter-

minating, demoting or discriminating against an employee for absences from work related to

volunteer emergency responses. The Bill limits the absences to 10 days per calendar year.

The employer may 1) ask for written verification from the office of emergency management

or state or local official in charge and 2) withhold employee’s regular pay during absence.

The employee must make reasonable efforts to notify the employer that he/she will be absent.

The Bill gives the employee a private cause of action for discrimination to be brought within

one year of the discriminatory act. Damages include reinstatement, back wages, and rein-

statement of seniority rights where appropriate.

House Bill 240 – Page 2

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The PED indicates that the bill may require public schools to make emergency arrangements to

provide coverage for employees who are absent to respond to an event declared an emergency or

disaster by the Governor or President.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

DOH indicates that the definition of volunteer emergency responder includes volunteer fire and

emergency medical services personnel, law enforcement officers, search and rescue team mem-

bers, and individuals enrolled as volunteers by the state or a political subdivision of the state for

response to an emergency or disaster. An employee who is absent would need to make efforts to

notify the employer of the absence, and continue to notify the employer during the absence, as

feasible. The employer may request written verification from the emergency organization or of-

ficial who manages the emergency of the time period that the employee served as a volunteer

responder. An employer may charge against an employee’s regular pay time during the em-

ployee’s absence while serving as an emergency responder. Should an employee be terminated

or otherwise discriminated in violation of the Volunteer Emergency Responder Job Protection

Act, the employee may bring a cause of action seeking reinstatement of the position, associated

benefits and back wages within one year from the date of the violation.

PED express concern that the bill does not specifically address whether members of the New

Mexico National Guard are included.

CONFLICT, DUPLICATION, COMPANIONSHIP, RELATIONSHIP

HB240 relates to HB40 that proposes that health professional volunteers deployed by the New

Mexico Department of Health (DOH) in response to a declared emergency shall be considered

public employees for the purposes of the Workers’ Compensation Act.

TECHNICAL ISSUES

DOH points out that HB 240 does not indicate the consequences to an employee who is ab-

sent more than 10 days in one period, or an employee who is deployed multiple times to re-

spond to a single disaster. It should be noted that this occurred in large disasters, such as the

Cerro Grande Fire in 2000, terrorist attacks in NY and Washington in 2001. More recently,

Hurricane Katrina, September 2005, many individuals were deployed for a period of time in

excess of 10 days.

Employees who serve as volunteer emergency responders should be required to pre-identify

their volunteer affiliation with their employers so that back-up plans can be in place at their

place of employment when these individuals are called on to respond.

EM/nt