Reduction of working hours to 40 hours a week stalls in Mexico Congress

The reform to reduce the working day labor in Mexico to 40 hours a week from the current 48 hours would not be approved this year, five sources involved in the discussions told Reuters, so its debate will have to wait until early 2024, when the legislature resumes its functions.

Since its discussion began last year, the constitutional reform initiative was resisted by businessmen and the opposition. National Action Party (PAN) -the second force in the lower house behind the ruling Morena- and seemed to receive a brake this week after the president Andrés Manuel López Obrador I would ask for more time to analyze it.

The regular session ends on December 13 and the president said this week in his morning conference that the 12th should not become a definitive date for the issue. The deputies will resume their functions on February 1, 2024 and finish the legislature in August.

“Give time and even invite everyone and review what is happening in other countries (…) and listen more, give reasons,” he said Tuesday when asked about the issue.

Echoing what sources told Reuters, the president of the Points commission Constitutional of the Chamber of DeputiesJuan Robledo, assured on Thursday that “there is will but there is no time to approve.”

“For the next period of this legislature, the discussion will take place in plenary,” he added.

To be approved, the reform requires the favorable vote of two-thirds of the deputies. Morena and her allies do not have a qualified majority. Once the reform is approved in the Chamber of Deputies, it must be endorsed by the Senate and, subsequently, by more than half of the state congresses.

The reform initiative, which seeks to establish that for every five days of work there are two days of rest, was presented by Morena last year and, only in April, the commission of Constitutional Points of the Chamber of Deputies approved it.

The next step was to debate the changes in plenary but, given the resistance of the business sector and the PAN, it was decided to bring them to a “open parliament” in October and November, when the voices of workers, unions, employers, academics, among others, were heard.

During the discussions, the businessmen asked the deputies that the application of the reform be done gradually in order not to affect some sectors with high demand for labor.

In addition, they considered that the initiative would seriously affect small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs), as well as sectors such as manufacturing, agriculture, commerce and tourism and that there would be a risk of business closures. They also maintained that, if approved, it would require the hiring of 2.6 million workers with reduced hours, which would have an annual impact of 20 billion dollars for companies.

“The increase in the reduction of working hours has an estimated (additional) cost of between 10% and 20% (in expenses). “This is going to impact the final consumer.”Esperanza Ortega, president of Canacintra, the body that represents Mexico’s industrial sector, said earlier this week.

“We industrialists do not refuse to reduce working hours (but) we need more productivity to be able to maintain what we have today,” he added at a press conference.

Mexico is the country of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) with the worst balance between personal life and work, according to the group, known as “the rich country club.”

With 2,226 hours annually (about 500 hours more than the OECD average), Mexico, the second largest economy in Latin America, leads the table of OECD nations. OECD where most work is done. In addition, it is the country with the least labor productivity and lowest salaries of the group of 38 states.

Since assuming the presidency at the end of 2018, López Obrador has sought to improve the quality of life of Mexicans. Year after year he has increased the minimum wage above inflation; However, Mexico continues to be one of the countries in the region with the lowest salaries.

“No one is against the fact that workers’ rights should increase. “What we have said is that SMEs are worrying,” defended the deputy Naomi Lunaof the PAN, in the conclusions of the open parliament in November.

(Source: Reuters)