Collective Suspension of employment relationships due to electrical power cuts.

The most severe winter storm in the last 30 years was registered in Texas a few days ago; this storm has left millions of people without electricity in the United States and Mexico.

Given that the United States is the main producer of natural gas in the world and that the close commercial relationship with our country has made Texas the main supplier of liquefied or natural gas for Mexico, the measures taken in Texas, mainly the reduction in its distribution, have affected our country in regard to power generation.

This gas has been used in the Mexican industry as the main producer of power, which is why the scarcity of this hydrocarbon has been the cause of the intermittent electrical power cuts that have mainly affected the States of Aguascalientes, Colima, the State of México, Guanajuato, Guerrero, Jalisco, Michoacán, Nayarit, Puebla, Querétaro, San Luis Potosí and Zacatecas.

Since winter storms, a fact of nature, and the decisions made by the State of Texas are directly related to the generation of power and, in consequence, to the aforementioned power cuts, we consider that this is a fortuitous event or force majeure, not attributable to the employer, which carries the necessary, immediate and direct consequence of the suspension of work.

Force majeure and fortuitous events generate legal consequences, such as the collective suspension of employment relationships. This situation has had the consequence that the Federal Electricity Commission has been forced to order cuts of the electrical power, affecting the operation of machinery and, therefore, workers are being prevented from providing their services.

Therefore, and in accordance with the Federal Labor Law, companies could suspend collective employment relationships in accordance with Section I of Article 427 of the Federal Labor Law and notify the Labor Authority in accordance with the provisions of Section I of Article 429 of the abovementioned Law, so that once the procedure provided for in the Federal Labor Law is substantiated, the corresponding compensation to be paid by the employer, which cannot exceed one month of salary, can be determined.