Former employee sues State Auditor’s Office over flex time

Woman claims she was denied schedule adjustments to care for ailing father

The former budget and finance director of the State Auditor’s Office is suing the agency, claiming she was forced to resign because a supervisor wouldn’t allow her to use flex time to care for her father, who had suffered a stroke.

Mary Martinez, a Santa Fe resident who worked for the State’s Auditor’s Office between 2014 and 2016, says in her complaint that the office violated the Americans with Disabilities Act, the New Mexico Human Rights Act and the state Family Medical Leave Act.

Neither State Auditor Tim Keller nor Martinez’s supervisor are named in the suit, which was filed Monday in the state’s First District Court in Santa Fe.

Martinez started working for the auditor in April 2014. Shortly after she began work, the suit says, her father suffered a stroke. At first, the suit says, a supervisor told Martinez that she didn’t need to take family medical leave to care for the man because she could work late to make up

for time she’d missed.

But the arrangement changed in 2015, when a new administration took over the office. Keller, elected state auditor in November 2014, appointed a new chief finance officer when he stepped into the job. According to Martinez’s suit, the new CFO sent her emails criticizing her for requesting time off to care for her father.

The situation became worse in January 2016, when her father fell and was seriously injured, the suit says.

Human resources staff had told Martinez that she could take intermittent family medical leave to help take care of her father, and that it would last a full year, according to the complaint. But in April 2016, the suit says, Martinez’s supervisor told her that her family leave had expired and that she would have to work normal hours.

On April 18, 2016, the suit says, Martinez “had no other option but to resign.”

Asked for comment on the legal action, Keller’s Deputy Chief of Staff Justine Freeman said, “This is a routine human resources matter from a former classified employee who resigned.”