Note published on july8, 2021, on El Economista, section Empresas by María del Pilar Martínez
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The low tendency of legitimation of collective bargaining agreements will cause the Federal Center for Labor Conciliation and Registration (CFCRL) to declare 80% of collective bargaining agreements in the country null and void, stated Ricardo Martínez Rojas, directing partner at the De la Vega & Martínez Rojas Firm.
The low tendency of legitimation of collective bargaining agreements will cause the Federal Center for Labor Conciliation and Registration (CFCRL) to declare 80% of collective bargaining agreements in the country null and void, stated Ricardo Martínez Rojas, directing partner at the De la Vega & Martínez Rojas Firm after analyzing the latest data that reveals that 5,066 legitimations have been achieved as of July 1 2022.
He explained that “the obligation of legitimizing the collective bargaining agreement corresponds to the union that holds said agreement, without the intervention of the employer, and the Federal Center for Labor Conciliation and Registration is the responsible authority in charge of verifying the legitimation process for the collective bargaining agreements.”
If this trend continues, 80% of all collective bargaining agreements will have been declared to be null and void by next year, which will entail a radical change in many of the labor relationships of numerous companies, with possible risks of calls to strike for the execution of new collective bargaining agreements with other unions.
In the next 10 months, with help from the Department of Labor and Social Welfare, the CFCRL will have the capability of legitimizing 15,000 additional agreements during this year, but the “saturation deriving from the lack of possible dates due to the reduced number of existing verifiers needs to be taken into account, even though public notaries and self-assessment can be used.”
He pointed out that in accordance with the commitments acquired by the Mexican Government with the signature of the Free Trade Agreement between Mexico, the United States and Canada (USMCA), it was established in Annex 23-A “that all existing collective bargaining agreements in Mexico must be reviewed and approved by the majority of the workers covered by them, through their personal, free and secret vote, within a term of four years from the entry into force of the reform to the Federal Labor Law; agreements that are not reviewed and ratified by the majority of workers within this term will be declared to be null and void.
Meanwhile, the Executive Order for the Reforms to the Federal Labor Law was published on May 1 2019 and entered into force on May 2 of the same year. Its Article Eleven includes the commitment established in the USMCA in relation to the legitimation of collective bargaining agreements and, therefore, said agreements must be legitimized by May 1 2023, at the latest, under penalty of being declared to be null and void.
