Conciliation centers start operations; goodbye to the boards in 8 states

Luisa María Alcalde Luján informed that the 8 states that are moving to the new labor justice model are ready to start operations: Campeche, Chiapas, Durango, the State of Mexico, Hidalgo, San Luis Potosí, Tabasco and Zacatecas.

Note published in El Economista, Empresas [Companies] Section by María del Pilar Martínez.
Read the note in its original source

As of this Wednesday, the new model for the administration of justice in the country begins, with the start of operations of the Federal Center for Labor Conciliation and Registration (CFCRL) and the facilities in 8 states of the Mexican Republic, with the objective of ending the practice of labor protection contracts and finishing with “the enormous simulation in the negotiation of collective bargaining agreements in a provision of justice that was late and partial, corruption, legal uncertainty for companies, which jeopardized the market and the quality of life of the workers.”

These are the words of the head of the Department of Labor and Social Welfare, Luisa María Alcalde Luján, after informing that the 8 states that are moving to the new labor justice model are ready to start operations, these states are: Campeche, Chiapas, Durango, the State of Mexico, Hidalgo, San Luis Potosí, Tabasco and Zacatecas.

After noting that companies must take the start of this process into consideration for the deposit of contracts or agreements, specialist in labor matters Germán de la Garza de Vecchi, of the Mowat-Deloitte Legal Firm, said that the fact that the courts are ascribed to the Judicial Power and that they are independent “is because they seek to guarantee that their rulings are not subject to decisions of a political nature, to the decisions of business bodies or of majoritarian union organizations, they seek for them to be courts in their full rights that resolve disputes impartially and objectively.”

The labor reform on Labor Justice, Union Freedom and Collective Bargaining matters was published in the Official Gazette of the Federation on May 1, 2019; this reform establishes that, within a maximum period of 4 years, all of the labor courts of the Judicial Power of the Federation must be in operation; it also establishes that each Judicial Circuit will start operations in the order and sequence determined by the declarations issued by the Senate of the Republic, based on the proposal of the Federal Judicature Council and which, in this first stage, comprises 8 entities.

The axes of this new labor model establish the extinction of the Conciliation Boards of the Federal Boards and Arbitration; the creation of Labor Courts attached to the Judicial Power and the axis will be the mandatory conciliation to enable the settlement of labor disputes; additionally, in this new model, the Federal Center for Labor Conciliation and Registration will carry out the verification of the union democracy procedures, which establishes that the laws will guarantee that the principles of legitimacy of union organizations and the principles of certainty in the collective bargaining procedures for workers’ negotiation with employers will be complied with.

In consequence, explained Óscar de la Vega, partner of the D&M Firm, all of the registry functions that had been carried out by the Conciliation and Arbitration Boards will end as of November 18, “all collective bargaining agreements and internal work regulations will have to be filed at the state office of the CFCRL [Federal Center for Labor Conciliation and Registration] regardless of whether they belong to a federal or a local jurisdiction.”