Facilities for the new labor conciliation center are being made ready

Note published in El Economista, Empresas [Companies] Section by María del Pilar Martínez.
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November 18 is the date in which the new Federal Center for Labor Conciliation and Registration (CFCRL) is scheduled to start operating. It will be located in facilities that were formerly used by the Department of Labor and Social Welfare (STPS) in Picacho Ajusco and, therefore remodeling and adaptation works are being conducted to enable it to start operations.

The CFCRL, headed by Alfredo Dominguez Marrufo, will be the headquarters, at the federal level, and faces the challenge of conducting all of the necessary actions to enable the Center itself to have documentation on all digital files, all dossiers on all collective bargaining agreements and all union records that are filed both in the Federal Registry of Associations and over 26,000 union records deposited in the local Conciliation and Arbitration Boards, in addition to the excess collective bargaining agreements and contracts located both in the Federal Board and the Local Board.

Therefore, the works currently being conducted on the facilities of the new CFCRL must be completed in the next four weeks; additionally, the registration and conciliation technological platforms required for a portal with transparency and public availability of all of the documents that must be made available to the workers in regard to collective bargaining agreement bylaws will be installed.

This Center is a new addition to those which will jointly start operations in eight entities within the Mexican Republic.

“The start of operations of the CFCRL must take place in a timely manner in the month of November given that, in the event that the timelines established in the transitory articles of the law are not met, this will give rise to a legal vacuum that will render the reform inapplicable, since there will be no authority in place to apply it. If this is not achieved, it will be impossible for this body to verify compliance with the obligations in regard to effective collective bargaining and union freedom matters”, pointed out Héctor de la Cruz, expert in labor law at the De la Vega & Martinez Rojas Firm.

He explained that there has already been a delay, as the CFCRL should have started its registration functions in October 2020; however, due to different causes, including Covid, budgets, training of officials, it will begin operating on November 18 of this year, with the objective of complying with the legal mandate, it must be fully operational (at 100%) by May 2021.

“The fact that the start of operations of the CFCRL is part of the international agreements assumed by Mexico in the USMCA cannot be forgotten, and the United States, in particular, has been very punctual in demanding that the implementation of the reform in all of its aspects be complied with; therefore, any lack of compliance could be a cause for estrangement from our commercial partners”, he said.