The Technical Council, the highest authority of the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS), unanimously agreed to keep the criterion for determining the payment of pensions with a cap of 25 minimum wages, under the provisions of the Social Security Law in effect as of June 30, 1997.
The above, deriving from the decision on contradictory court opinions by the Second Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN), published on Friday, January 24 in which the basis for the calculation of pensions was set at 10 minimum wages.
The ruling stated that, if a worker from the transition generation chose the regime of the1973 law, the applicable cap on his pension would be of 10 times the minimum wage; if the worker chose the 1977 law regime, the 25 minimum wage cap would apply and he would have to comply with having worked 1,250 weeks.
During the session of the tripartite Social Security management body – comprised by workers and employers – presided by IMSS Director Zoé Robledo, the Legal Director of the IMSS, Antonio Pérez Fonticoba, presented the project that establishes that the directorships of Incorporation and Collection, of Economic and Social Benefits and Administration will carry out the necessary regulatory and administrative actions for the fulfillment of this agreement.
The regulatory directorships of the Mexican Social Security Institute were also asked to provide the necessary support for the fulfillment of the abovementioned objectives of this criterion
The following members of the employers’ sector were present at the voting: Jorge Dávila Girón, Salomón Presburger Slovik and Manuel Reguera Rodríguez. From the workers’ sector: José Luis Carazo Preciado, Rodolfo González Guzmán, Constantino Romero González and José Noé Mario Moreno Carbajal.
On Tuesday, in a statement, the head of the IMSS said that “nobody is at risk in regard to the amount of their pension; nothing is being “shaved”, as published in the headline of one communication medium, there will be no recalculation, no decrease”.
In this regard, Ricardo Martinez Rojas, founding partner of the La Vega & Martínez Rojas Firm stated that this confusion in regard to pensions must be taken as a wake-up call for the Mexican system.
After pointing out that the law on Afores [Retirement Funds Administrators] caused a great deal of confusion since the beginning, Martínez Rojas predicted that “there will be a crisis in 2026 because that is the year in which the demographic bonus ends, the period in which the active and inactive working-age population outnumbers economically dependent people, hence the urgency on progressing on the topic of pensions”.
Note published in El Economista, Empresas [Companies] Section by María del Pilar Martínez
