New Mexico — Workplace Safety

New Mexico operates an OSHA-approved state plan (initially approved December 10, 1975) that covers most private-sector employers and employees, as well as all state and local government employers and employees. The New Mexico Occupational Health and Safety Bureau (OSHB), part of the New Mexico Environment Department, administers the plan. Federal OSHA retains jurisdiction over maritime employment (shipyard, marine terminals, longshoring), U.S. Postal Service contract workers and facilities, employment on military facilities and bases (including Kirtland AFB, Holloman AFB, White Sands, and others), and tribal or private-sector employment on Indian reservations. NM OSHA has adopted all federal OSHA standards by reference; the state and federal standards are therefore identical, though NM OSHA has adopted certain unique state-specific standards.

Source: OSHA New Mexico State Plan | 29 C.F.R. § 1952.20

New Mexico OSHA requires all employers under its jurisdiction — regardless of industry classification or number of employees — to report work-related fatalities and severe injuries directly to the agency within strict timeframes. As an OSHA-approved state plan, New Mexico has adopted the federal recordkeeping and reporting standards by reference, including the severe injury reporting rule at 29 C.F.R. § 1904.39. For New Mexico, these requirements became enforceable as of July 16, 2015, when the state formally adopted the revised federal rule (not January 1, 2016, as some older agency materials or federal summaries state).

Reporting deadlines

Employers must report:

• Fatalities within 8 hours of the death, if the death occurs within 30 days of the work-related incident.
• In-patient hospitalizations, amputations, or losses of an eye within 24 hours of the event, if the event occurs within 24 hours of the work-related incident.

The clock starts when the employer learns of the outcome. If the employer does not learn immediately that the fatality, hospitalization, amputation, or eye loss was the result of a work-related incident, the reporting window begins when the employer or any agent of the employer learns it was work-related: 8 hours for a fatality, 24 hours for the other severe injuries.

Definitions

Under the federal standard New Mexico has adopted, in-patient hospitalization means a formal admission to the in-patient service of a hospital or clinic for care or treatment. Treatment in an emergency room only is not reportable, nor is hospitalization solely for observation or diagnostic testing.

Amputation means the traumatic loss of all or part of a limb or other external body part, including fingertip amputations with or without bone loss, medical amputations resulting from irreparable damage, and amputations of body parts that have since been reattached.

Exceptions

Under 29 C.F.R. § 1904.39, employers are not required to report if the incident:

• Resulted from a motor vehicle accident on a public street or highway, except in a construction work zone;
• Occurred on a commercial or public transportation system (airplane, train, subway, or bus); or
• Involved hospitalization solely for diagnostic testing or observation.

How to report

Employers have three options for reporting under the federal regulation New Mexico has adopted:

1. By telephone to the OSHA 24-hour hotline at 1-800-321-6742 (available any time);
2. By telephone to the nearest OSHA Area Office during normal business hours; or
3. Electronically through OSHA's online reporting portal.

Employers must be prepared to provide the business name, names of affected employees, location and time of the incident, a brief description, and a contact person with phone number.

Applies to all employers

The severe injury reporting requirement applies to all employers under New Mexico OSHA jurisdiction, including those exempt from routine recordkeeping under 29 C.F.R. § 1904.1 (employers with 10 or fewer employees and certain low-hazard industries). Although a small employer may not be required to maintain OSHA 300 logs, it must still report fatalities and severe injuries within the mandated windows.

Source: 29 C.F.R. § 1904.39 | NM EIB Adoption Notice & New Mexico Register Vol. 26, No. 11 (June 16, 2015)

Effective date disparity: federal vs. New Mexico OSHA severe injury reporting

Federal OSHA’s severe injury and fatality reporting rule (29 C.F.R. § 1904.39) required all covered employers to begin reporting work-related fatalities within 8 hours and in-patient hospitalizations, amputations, and losses of an eye within 24 hours, effective January 1, 2015. This federal rule was immediately enforceable in federal OSHA states as of that date.

New Mexico's state plan adoption

New Mexico, as an OSHA state-plan state, is permitted to adopt federal standards on a delayed timetable, so long as the state’s rules are at least as effective as the federal standard (see 29 C.F.R. § 1953.5). New Mexico’s Environmental Improvement Board (EIB) held a public hearing on May 15, 2015, to adopt the revised 11.5.1.16 NMAC, formally incorporating the requirements of 29 C.F.R. § 1904.39. The rule was published in the New Mexico Register on June 16, 2015, and became effective July 16, 2015.

During this gap—January 1, 2015, to July 16, 2015—federal OSHA’s severe injury reporting deadlines were NOT enforceable by NM OSHA. NM employers became subject to state enforcement for these reporting requirements beginning July 16, 2015—not January 1, 2015, nor January 1, 2016. (Several state and federal guidance pages refer to the general federal effective date, but New Mexico’s own regulatory filings and the NM Register confirm the actual state-plan effective date.)

Summary Table — Severe Injury Reporting Effective Dates

• Federal OSHA: January 1, 2015
• New Mexico state plan: July 16, 2015

Source: 29 C.F.R. § 1904.39 | NM EIB Adoption Notice & New Mexico Register Vol. 26, No. 11 (June 16, 2015)

Under the New Mexico Occupational Health and Safety Act, employees who believe they have been retaliated against for safety-related activity must file a written complaint with the Secretary of the New Mexico Environment Department, Occupational Health & Safety Bureau (OHSB) within 30 days after the challenged action occurs. This filing window and process are set by statute: N.M. Stat. Ann. § 50-9-25(B) states the complaint must be filed with the Secretary in writing and within 30 days. The OHSB's own whistleblower/discrimination guidance confirms that it accepts signed discrimination complaints and describes the process for both private and public workers.

Filing process:

• Complaints must be in writing (the statute requires “in writing and acknowledged by the employee”; practically, OHSB describes use of a signed Discrimination Complaint Form).
• Complaints may be submitted by mail, email, fax, or in-person, as detailed in OHSB's guidance. The Bureau instructs using the designated complaint form and provides contact and submission methods.

Filing deadline:

• 30 calendar days from the date the adverse (retaliatory) action is taken and communicated. The OHSB guidance reiterates this timeframe.

Private vs. public coverage:

• N.M. Stat. Ann. § 50-9-25 does not distinguish between private-sector and state/local government employees. The OHSB's jurisdiction webpage and guidance on whistleblower/discrimination state that both groups may file workplace safety retaliation complaints through the same process and deadline. Agency materials state: “State and local government employees may also file a complaint.”

Summary:

• Where to file: With the OHSB/Secretary by signed, written complaint.
• Deadline: Within 30 calendar days after the employer's action.
• Applies to: Both private-sector and state/local government employees, per agency interpretation and guidance.

Source: N.M. Stat. Ann. § 50-9-25(B) | NMED Occupational Health & Safety Bureau—Whistleblower/Discrimination | NMED OHSB Jurisdiction

When the New Mexico Occupational Health and Safety Bureau (OHSB) issues a citation—including any proposed penalty or abatement date—an employer has a precise legal path to challenge it.

Forum and Deadline Under NMSA § 50-9-17(B), the employer must file a written Notice of Contest with the OHSB within fifteen (15) working days (Monday–Friday, excluding state holidays) after receipt of the citation or penalty notice. If no timely notice is filed, the citation and penalty become a final order not subject to further review. The Notice of Contest must specifically identify the citation items contested (existence or classification of violation, penalty amount, abatement period, or any combination) and comply with NMAC 11.5.5.302, which prescribes the required form and content, including a description, supporting reason, and attachments (copies of citation, exhibits, and an affidavit or explanation of required posting to employees).

Employee Notice Requirement When contesting a citation, employers must post notice of any informal administrative review meeting or teleconference in locations accessible to affected employees at least five (5) days beforehand, and must file an affidavit of posting, or if posting to employees is not required, an explanation for lack of posting (NMAC 11.5.5.302 and 11.5.5.306).

Informal Administrative Review A timely Notice of Contest triggers informal administrative review, conducted and scheduled by OHSB. Affected employees/representatives may participate.

Administrative Complaint and Formal Hearing If not resolved informally, OHSB must file a formal administrative complaint with the Occupational Health and Safety Review Commission (OHSRC) within 90 days after docketing the contest. The informal review ends upon employer’s receipt of the complaint or three (3) days after the 90-day deadline, whichever comes first (NMAC 11.5.5.306(D)). OHSRC then conducts a formal hearing under its procedures, in which both employers and employees may participate as parties. Any party adversely affected by the Commission's final order may seek judicial review under NMSA § 39-3-1.1 (note: this authorizes district court review but does not set out the procedure).

Source: NMSA § 50-9-17(B) | NMAC 11.5.5.302 | NMAC 11.5.5.306

New Mexico sets its own civil penalty levels for occupational safety and health violations under the New Mexico Occupational Health and Safety Act (NMSA 1978, § 50-9-24), as last amended by SB 229 (2017). The statute establishes specific penalty maximums and minimums by violation type—serious, other-than-serious, willful, repeat, and failure-to-abate—with an annual CPI-based adjustment required each April 1. The goal is to ensure that New Mexico's penalty scheme remains "at least as effective as" that of federal OSHA, but the penalty amounts themselves are set independently in state law and adjusted annually—not pegged to federal amounts by default.

Current Penalty Levels (as of April 1, 2024):

• Willful or Repeat Violations: Maximum $160,727 per violation; minimum $11,513 per violation (NMSA 1978, § 50-9-24(A); FOM Ch. 6 Appendix A).
• Serious Violations: Maximum $16,071 per violation (NMSA 1978, § 50-9-24(B); FOM Ch. 6 Appendix A).
• Other-Than-Serious Violations: Maximum $16,071 per violation (NMSA 1978, § 50-9-24(C); FOM Ch. 6 Appendix A).
• Failure to Abate: Maximum $16,071 per day (NMSA 1978, § 50-9-24(D); FOM Ch. 6 Appendix A).

Adjustment Mechanism & Relationship to Federal OSHA: Annual adjustments are applied on or before April 1 each year by the New Mexico Environment Department Secretary, based on the U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) and in accordance with § 50-9-24(J). The amounts are published in OHSB’s Field Operations Manual (FOM). These adjustments are designed to keep New Mexico’s penalties at least as stringent as federal OSHA. However, New Mexico does not automatically adopt federal OSHA penalty amounts—it follows its own statutory formula and administrative process, with the federal requirement of “effectiveness” as a backdrop, not a hard linkage.

Comparison: As of 2025 federal OSHA maximums (for reference), serious and other-than-serious violations are capped at $16,550, and willful/repeat violations at $165,514 (see osha.gov/penalties). Thus, New Mexico penalty levels are in practice close to, but not always an exact match to, the current federal levels.

Source: NMSA 1978, § 50-9-24 | NMED OHSB Field Operations Manual, Ch. 6 Appendix A (April 2024)