On September 20, 2022, the Joint Commissions of Labor and Social Welfare and of Legislative Studies, Second, submitted to the consideration of the Senate of the Republic the opinion denominated as “Draft of the Executive Order through which various provisions of the Federal Labor Law on the topic of proper vacations are reformed and added to”.
The Draft has its origin in 5 initiatives presented before the Full Session from 2020 to 2022 and after the analysis of which the following conclusions were reached.
Even though Mexico has ratified various international treaties, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights or the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, among others, which include clear sections on the paid vacations that workers should have a right to, we find ourselves below both the minimum agreed upon by the International Labor Organization and the mean in Latin America, which has an average of 16 days per year.
In addition to the above, Mexico ranks as the country in which working people suffer the highest level of work-related stress, according to data from the “Work-related Stress in Mexico” study, published by the Asociación de Internet MX [MX Internet Association] and OCCMundial within the framework of the AIMX Human Capital Committee on September 28, 2021. Therefore, it has been considered as appropriate and relevant to make an adjustment that guarantees the rest required by workers to disconnect from work and spend quality time away from their work activities and which, at the same time, guarantees the operability of companies and even that said vacation periods become a factor that increases national tourism activities and has a direct impact on the economic dynamics of this sector.
In consequence, the proposal included in the opinion promotes the following changes to the number of vacation days that workers will have a right to set forth in Article 76 of the Federal Labor Law.
| Years on the job | Number of Vacation Days |
|---|---|
| Year 1 | 12 days |
| Year 2 | 14 days |
| Year 3 | 16 days |
| Year 4 | 18 days |
| Year 5 | 20 days |
| From 6 to 10 years | 22 days |
| From 11 to 15 years | 24 days |
| From 16 to 20 years | 26 days |
| From 21 to 25 years | 28 days |
| From 26 to 30 years | 30 days |
| From 31 to 35 years | 32 days |
Noting that the continuous increase of two days per year ends in the fifth year and, from the sixth year forward, the number of days increases by two days per year for every 5 years of service.
Likewise, Article 78 of the same law would be amended, stating that workers must enjoy a minimum of 12 vacation days in an uninterrupted manner.
The proposal must be analyzed by the full session and, if approved, it will continue its discussion and approval process which we will closely monitor to keep you up to date on any possible amendment.
