State Employees Protest in Las Cruces, Demand Back Pay

They are demanding wages they have already earned. A group of New Mexico state employees protested in downtown Las Cruces Thursday.

The rally consisted of detention officers with the Southern New Mexico Correctional Facility. The workers tell ABC-7’s New Mexico Mobile Newsroom their union successfully negotiated a pay raise in 2007 with the administration of then governor Bill Richardson.

Then, the economy took a nosedive and the state imposed a hiring and pay raise freeze.

Eventually, the New Mexico State Supreme Court determined the new contract was breached and ruled thousands of state employees were owed back pay. Nearly six years later, many are still fighting for that back pay.

“We’re here asking for money that is owed to us. It’s money that we already earned, we already put in the hours for it,” said Jesus Saldivar, a state employee, “So we’ve been quiet, but all we keep getting are excuses.”

ABC-7 has learned state employee hourly rates were adjusted in June of 2014. However, the contract called for pay increases between 3% and 5%. The state gave the employees a 2.9% raise.

Randi Johnson, the General Counsel with the New Mexico State Personnel Office, tells ABC-7 nearly 50 percent of the back pay checks, about 4,200, have been processed and mailed.

Johnson said the average back pay check amount is about $1,300. Pending back pay checks involve more complex calculations which require more time for validation, Johnson added.

Saldivar tells ABC-7 his colleagues have run out of patience. “We’re getting tired of it you know. It’s money we need,” Saldivar said, “Gas prices went up, the cost of food went up.”