Note published in El Sol de México, Sociedad [Society] Section by Bertha Becerra.
Read the note in its original source
The abuse in wage depredation is what led the federal government to present the initiative that prohibits subcontracting in a general manner.
The abuse in wage depredation is what led the federal government to present the initiative that prohibits subcontracting or outsourcing in a general manner, in the opinion of the CTM, CROC workers’ unions and specialists in Labor Law.
And both the Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM), and the Revolutionary Confederation of Workers and Peasants (CROC), pronounced themselves in favor of the presidential bill sent to the House of Representatives in the sense of combating bad practices in this labor subcontracting mode.
The leader of the CTM, Senator Carlos Aceves del Olmo, believes that a legislative analysis should also be conducted, before approval by the plenary session of the representatives, “since there are many companies that comply with their payments and social security obligations and, in a way, they have allowed a greater generation of jobs in the last 10 years”.
The proposed amendment of several regulations has a beneficial objective in the surveillance and guarantee of labor rights. In this sense, the CTM unions are in favor of it; but it must be made clear that it is not a generalized elimination of this mode of outsourcing, but a better regulation and a formal exhortation to operate within the framework of the law and complying with all requirements,”
The secretary general of the CTM points out: “If businessmen ask for a gradual implementation, they should be listened to and taken into account by the representatives and senators, in order for this not to become an excuse to dismiss workers, particularly in these difficult times for the Mexican economy.”
For the leader of the CROC, representative Isaías González Cuevas, the Mexican President’s bill “puts an end to the outsourcing party by derogating several articles of the Federal Labor Law, the Social Security Law, the Infonavit [National Worker’s Housing Fund Institute] Law, the Federal Tax Code, Income Tax and VAT Laws in order to put an end to simulation and the abuse of bad employers.”
With this reform, companies will be under a close surveillance in order to prevent them from violating workers’ rights and their tax obligations.
He recalled that the mode of subcontracting or outsourcing has been in operation in Mexico since 1990. “It is a tool that was greatly abused, more and more with each passing day.”
What the presidential bill prohibits is subcontracting in general. That is a general rule: no company can outsource any type of service that involves the transference of personnel from one company to another.
Except in those cases in which the activity to be performed by the subcontracted worker or workers is not directly related with the main activity of the company or with its corporate purpose, states lawyer Héctor de la Cruz.
It is the case of insourcing schemes, within the same business group. He explained that there are operating companies and other companies that only provide services. And the latter do have a problem.
In the country, it is very common to see that there are companies that don’t have a single worker and they are the ones generating all the profits. They keep the workers in the service company, with low benefits, without receiving PTU or profit sharing, without having the same benefits as the workers in the operating company.
And this abuse, this depredation of wages is what leads the government to present this bill, said the specialist in labor law from the De la Vega & Martínez Rojas Firm.
He relates that this initiative has to be discussed in Congress and, ideally, a distinction should be made on which is good and which is bad subcontracting.
In regard to penalizations, and even prison sentences, he explains:
“Fines can go from two thousand to 50 thousand UMAS [Units of Measure and Update]. That is, the highest fine can be of over 4 million pesos, in the event that the new regulations are not complied with.
