The reform on subcontracting matters, which is expected to be approved by the Senate of the Republic next week, includes changes and amendments that allow the performance of this activity, and centers exclusively on reinforcing the inspection corresponding to the authorities, agreed labor specialists.
“The ruling issued by agreement of the work group that coordinated the Political Coordination Meeting of the Senate of the Republic, with the representation of businessmen, unions and legislators, surpasses expectations; the demands of the Department of Labor and Social Welfare were heeded, giving this authority the power to conduct inspections and to link the laws of the Department of Labor with those of the IMSS [Mexican Social Security Institute] and the Infonavit [National Worker’s Housing Fund Institute]”, said Ricardo Martínez Rojas, labor specialist of the D&M Firm.
Even though, he stated, there are some aspects that are not clear in their wording, “such as the necessity of knowing whether the employer is jointly responsible in the activity or if he becomes an employer at the moment in which the proper use of subcontracting is not complied with, still, this industry in which over 8 million workers are involved in is being allowed to operate”, he added.
For his part, Germán de la Garza de Vecchi, a partner of the Mowat Firm, added that having the National Registry of Subcontracting Companies will be a fundamental tool for the authority, “it will be key for inspection and it will be key for workers to be aware of the mode under which they are hired; additionally, it is intended for it to have tripartite participation in the preparation of the operation guidelines”.
It is very positive, stated De la Garza de Vecchi, that the senators have made the decision of standardizing the concept of subcontracting in Article 15 A with the Social Security Law, as well as with the Infonavit Law, given that the different laws were disjointed and this made inspection difficult.
Coordination, essential.
The specialists agreed that it is essential that the authority carries out inspections, “never, even though they had a series of locks in place since 2012, was there the wish or the intention of conducting inspections.
At this time, there is a better coordination between the authorities, which will enable the detection and eradication of bad outsourcing practices”, said Alfonso Bouzas, a labor specialist and coordinator of the Citizens’ Observatories on the Labor Reform.
He added that “the penalizations proposed in Gómez Urrutia’s project were an exaggeration, penalizations were eliminated from the reform, although this reform is not complete yet, contracts and profit sharing payment schemes and workers’ rights are yet to be reviewed”.
Bouzas emphasized that bad practices are what is sought to be eliminated, such as the use of the concepts of cooperatives, unions or copyrights to hire workers, whose labor rights and social security benefits are negatively affected.
Likewise, Ricardo Martínez Rojas pointed out that there is a deep commitment from Senator Ricardo Monreal to carry the reform through, even though his participation in the Labor and Social Welfare Commission, headed by Senator Napoleón Gómez Urrutia, was delayed, as it is planned that there will be a new regulation in subcontracting matters before this term is through.
Note published in El Economista, Empresas [Companies] section by María del Pilar Martínez
