Will you get a year-end bonus if you worked in outsourcing and you are now in the payroll?

Note published on December 8 in El Universal, Cartera [Portfolio] Section by Ivette Saldaña.
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By law, every worker is entitled to a year-end bonus of 15 days or the corresponding proportional part if he worked less than a year; this bonus must be paid before December 20 of each year.

But what will happen with the workers who due to the changes to the legislation ceased to be outsourced or subcontracted workers and changed employers?

Changes through which companies had to hire workers who worked for them by outsourcing or subcontracting entered into force on September 1 of this year; therefore, there should also be a year-end bonus for these workers.

“Many workers went through an employer substitution and, when that happens, the substituting employer assumes all obligations and would have to pay the full year-end bonus or the one corresponding to the time that the worker worked with the service company”, said the directing partner of De la Vega & Martínez RojasRicardo Martínez Rojas.

But “if he was given a severance payment by the outsourcing company and then was re-hired, he should have been paid the proportional part of the year-end bonus at the time in which he received his severance pay”, said  Martínez Rojas.

In this case, he should be paid four months, that is, from September to December, equivalent to 5 days of salary.

He added that in the case of companies that have had economic problems and will not be able to pay the full year-end bonus under the conditions established by law, they can reach agreements but “nothing can be agreed to that is below what is established by law.”

Does the year-end bonus cause taxes?

Academic Irma Pérez Cancino, of the Chiapas campus of the Escuela Bancaria Comercial, and Gabriela Aguirre, financial trainer from Coru, explained that the year-end bonus is a right corresponding to all workers, with a minimum of 15 days of salary, which must be paid before December 20, provided that the worker has worked the full year.

But if they started work in April, they are only entitled to 75% of the fifteen days. They explained that the equivalent of 1.25 days must be paid for each month that a person works, as a year-end bonus.

Pérez Cancino said that there is a part within this amount that is exempt from taxes, equivalent to 30 days of the UMA [Unit of Measure and Update], that is, equivalent to approximately 2 thousand 724 pesos; therefore, if the worker receives a similar amount, it is exempt, but if the amount is larger, it will be taxed with Income Tax.

Aguirre said that in the event that a worker is not paid his year-end bonus, he can approach the Federal Labor Defense Attorney’s Office.