In many companies it has become a regular practice that, at the time of hiring a new employee, the individual employment contract is signed and the employee is not given a copy of it. This means that, months or years later, the employee requests a copy of his or her individual employment contract. This generates doubts and uncertainty in the Human Resources and Personnel Administration teams as to whether it is mandatory to provide this copy or not.
In view of this, it is important to refer to the provisions of Article 24 of the Federal Labor Law, which stipulates that all working conditions must be in writing, i.e., a contract must be drawn up. In addition, at least two copies of such contract must be generated, one for the employer and one for the employee.
Likewise, Section I of Article 804 of the Federal Labor Law states that it is an obligation of the employer to keep the individual employment contract from the beginning of the employment relationship and until at least one year after the termination of such relationship, since, in the event of a labor lawsuit, it will be its obligation to exhibit it before the authority.
Therefore, we can see that more than a recommendation, it is an obligation of the employer to have a duly documented individual employment contract and to provide a copy to the employee. This should not generate any concern for companies, since the individual employment contract contains the actual conditions of the employment relationship and, in any case, is an ideal evidence to clarify these conditions before a court. The fact that the employee has a copy of this document does not generate any type of prejudice to the employer.
For this reason, it is important that the copy of the individual employment contract that the company has, in addition to being duly signed by the employee, contains a written statement in which the employee states that he/she was given a copy of said document . With this, the employer will be able to prove that it has complied with the aforementioned obligation.
The Labor Law team of Vega, Guerrero & Asociados is at your disposal to provide you with the necessary support in these and other labor law circumstances in which you may need advice.
