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Mexico Labor Reform Bill Aims to be More Inclusive
 Adrían Jiménez - The News
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March 30, 2010
Mexico City – The Labor Secretariat recently announced that the labor reform initiative proposed by the National Action Party (PAN) to the Congress aims to improve the working conditions of the most vulnerable groups in the country.
It said that, as a whole, workplaces lack the appropriate infrastructure to install handicapped accesses to the premises and to do their jobs. The labor reform proposal sets a 36-month deadline for employers and business owners to upgrade and outfit their buildings to improve the general working conditions for workers with disabilities.
In regards to agriculture workers, the reform includes obligations that must be fulfilled by employers, such as registering all seasonal and temporary workers and issuing a document that proves the number of days they worked in order to establish seniority. Employers must also provide potable water for their workers during work hours, use an interpreter when needed and have a first aid kit available for emergencies.
The Labor Secretariat said that the proposal will also address the cases of national workers hired to work in foreign territories, whose contracts are applied under the Federal Labor Law. This includes people recruited in Mexico by companies or agencies to carry out a specific job abroad, through mechanisms agreed to between the Mexican government and the foreign government.
The bill also aims to update the Federal Labor Law and to make hiring more flexible and improve productivity, while calling for greater labor union transparency, enforcing employer obligations and adopting measures that would protect the vulnerable groups, “with complete respect to the individual and collective rights granted by 123 Article of the Constitution.” The Federal Labor Law has not been changed in 40 years.
Furthermore, the PAN proposal seeks to create greater opportunities in the workplace for women, young people and vulnerable groups, as well as address sexual harassment and other work-related problems.
Several federal PAN deputies, business owners, and union leaders agree that Mexico cannot wait any longer and it is imperative to encourage a new culture in which employees and employers are benefited because the current laws are considered partly to blame for slow gains in productivity and low wages, discourage hiring in the formal economy and push many people to seek work in the informal economy.
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