Congressman Jorge Álvarez Máynez presented before the Chamber of Deputies a constitutional reform, the main objective of which is to allow workers to receive at least two days of full salary for every five days of work. This would result in a reduction in the number of working hours that workers would have to work per week from 48 to 40 hours, since to date, they only have one mandatory day of rest.
In the explanatory memorandum of the initiative, the Deputy mentions that Mexico occupies the first place in terms of hours worked among the members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), with a total of 2,137 hours worked per year. However, he argues that this has not translated into productivity, since per hour 22.2 dollars are contributed to the Gross Domestic Product, while other countries such as Ireland, where 772 hours are worked per year, contribute 110 dollars per hour to the GDP.
Since it is only intended to amend Article 123 of the Constitution, this initiative contemplates in its transitory provisions that both the Congress of the Union and the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare will have a term of 60 calendar days to make the corresponding regulatory adjustments once it enters into force. The next step to consolidate the reform, after its publication, would be precisely the reform to the Federal Labor Law.
In this sense, it establishes in its Fourth Transitory Article, that once it enters into force, employers will have 365 calendar days to carry out the corresponding operative organization, in order not to affect the labor operation of the work centers. The above means that, if the initiative is approved in the
Chamber of Deputies and subsequently in the Senate, employers will have one year to make the pertinent adjustments to comply with the provisions of the reform.
However, despite the fact that the initiative was approved by the Constitutional Points Commission with 25 votes in favor and five abstentions, the initiative was not voted in the plenary session of the Chamber of Deputies during this ordinary period, for which reason it is expected that the vote will be held until the next period in September of this year.
