A new model of labor justice will be implemented in Mexico in May: specialist

Note published on January 4 in El Sol de México, Finanzas [Finance] Section by Bertha Becerra.
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It will enter into force in the states with the highest number of conflicts, such as Nuevo León, Jalisco and Mexico City.

Even though there are no legal reforms in the horizon, this 2022 will be very intense in the labor life of the country. The new model of labor justice must be implemented throughout the Republic by May; the legitimation of collective bargaining agreements (CCT) must be accelerated; it is currently progressing very slowly, from a universe of 550 thousand at the national level.

Without forgetting the vigilance by the United States, which will be intense, given the great interest by the government of President Joe Biden in having Mexico comply with the legal commitments of the USMCA, in the opinion of Héctor de la Cruz, a lawyer specializing in Labor Law.

He explains that the new model of labor justice must be implemented throughout the Republic by May, and that it will enter into force in the states with the highest number of conflicts, such as Nuevo León, Jalisco and Mexico City.

Above all, the biggest challenge to the new system lies in the capital of the Republic, given that, if the Federal Center for Labor Conciliation and Registration (CFCRL)  and the courts become saturated, the administration of justice will be the same or slower than before, considers the lawyer from the De la Vega & Martínez Rojas Law Firm.

The expert in Labor Law explains to El Sol de México that, with the implementation of the third phase of the new model of labor justice in May, that will be the time in which all of the revisions of the collective bargaining agreements must be conducted with an approval of over 50% of the workers.

He states that “this imposes logistical challenges in order to obtain the greatest number of votes, regardless of the size or the geographical dispersion of the company; in addition to the challenges in regard to respecting the votes, which must be guaranteed by the Federal Center for Labor Conciliation and Registration.”

He explains that, in the processes for obtaining the ownership of the negotiation of the agreement, it is still pending that in this 2022 workers have the option of choosing not to unionize given that, up to this time, they can only choose between two or more unions.” “But if it is not their desire to belong to a union organization, this choice must be acknowledged by the authority, as said option would completely open the spectrum of freedom of association”, he explained.

He also believes that unions must continue with their legitimation processes in an accelerated manner, as the deadline is May of next year. “Although up until now it is evident that the process has been slow and not representative within a universe of almost 550 thousand collective bargaining agreements at the national level.”

He recalled that 1,400 had been legitimated as of August and that the expectation of the labor authorities was to finish 2021 with just over 2 thousand. And he warned that cases like General Motors, Silao, could be more frequent.

In regard to the accumulation of information resulting from these processes, it must be managed, classified and publicly reported by the Federal Center in order to have certainty on which collective bargaining agreements complied and, more importantly yet, how many will be terminated and what will be the effect of that determination.

The expert on Labor Law stated that “vigilance by the United States in labor matters will continue to be intense, given the great interest by the government of President Joe Biden in having Mexico comply with the legal commitments of the USMCA in freedom of association and union democracy matters.”

In addition to taking into consideration that the rapid response labor mechanisms of the trilateral Free Trade Agreement could be activated at any time; their purpose being to impose tariff sanctions on companies that violate the rights of the workers.