“The Federal Labor Law (LFT) is clear: ‘Workers’ wages cannot be attached’. The President’s position is firm regarding the initiative that threatens the main livelihood of the family. We are here for the workers and to defend their rights,” warned Luisa María Alcalde, head of the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare (STPS), about the delegated collection reform approved by the lower house.
This Thursday, the Chamber of Deputies modified various laws to include the concept of “payroll credit with delegated collection.” With this, the companies, before depositing the salary, could deduct from their workers the pending payments for payroll loans that they have with the Multiple Purpose Financial Companies (Sofomes).
The minute went through the support of the votes of Morena and its allied parties, but does not have the support of the federal government. Convincingly, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said this Friday at his press conference that, if approved in the Senate and if he reaches the Executive Branch, he would veto it. Later, the Secretary of Labor recalled on her Twitter account that the LFT prohibits garnish wages. Therefore, said reform would violate the provisions of the labor law.
Yesterday’s session was not an easy one, the topic led the discussion until around 8 at night. It was finally approved in general by 237 votes in favor and 201 against. The benches of the PAN, PRD and Citizen Movement opposed. But a part of Morena did not endorse the reform either, 18 legislators, such as Patricia Armendáriz, abstained; while 9 voted against, like Susana Prieto.
The Federal Labor Law is clear: “Workers’ wages cannot be attached”. The President’s position is firm regarding the initiative that threatens the main livelihood of the family.
We are here for the workers and to defend their rights.
– Luisa Mayor (@LuisaAlcalde)
March 18, 2022
The initiative arose in the Senate and, upon reaching San Lázaro, the Treasury and Public Credit Commission more than 100 modifications. Therefore, the approved document returned to that House to be analyzed and voted on again. The laws that are modified are:
- General Law of Securities and Credit Operations,
- General Law of Auxiliary Credit Organizations and Activities
- Law for the Protection and Defense of Financial Services Users
In the gallery, the deputy Lidia Pérez Bárcenas (Morena) argued that the reform “regulates a market that was not”. The Sophomes they obtain millionaire profits “and the minutes set limits on them”. With this measure, it will be known who is accredited before the National Commission for the Protection and Defense of Users of Financial Services (Condusef), he argued.
But the PAN deputy ldefonso Guajardo, Secretary of the Economy during Enrique Peña Nieto’s six-year term, pointed out that the Mexican bank credit It is cheaper than the one granted by the Sofomes. “In addition, they do not have the direct guarantee of the employer, they have to wait for the money to reach the account” of the worker or worker so that they collect.
Violation of salary protection
“The reform puts the salary in the general scheme of credits and, with it, the tutelary principle of the unattachable salary is questioned. It is a logical consequence of the evolution of the capitalist system, which today is one hundred percent financial and, for this reason, even salary is included in the scheme,” said Alfonso Bouzas, coordinator of the Labor Reform Citizen Observatory.
For Sara Morgan, labor lawyer and independent consultant, the legal modifications approved by the Congress of the Union have “chiaroscuro”. Although the reform responds to the fact that in Mexico there is a lack of financial culture that translates into misuse of credits in general and spending higher than income, by linking it directly to salary it can be a unconstitutional act.
With the changes to the regulatory framework, Alfonso Bouzas considered, the salary is equated to attachable assets such as a house or a car. “Here what has been lacking is unions and legislators who return to salary principles. It was unheard of for pensions to be valued in UMAs and this is following the same logic”.
In this sense, the specialist recalled that the salary can only be affected in two ways: alimony and increases or adjustments agreed with the workers for extraordinary situations. “By subjecting the worker’s income to the possibility that a credit will affect it, the salary ceases to be invulnerable.”
In the payroll loans, said Sara Morgan, there are two issues: the responsibility of the workers when processing a credit that is difficult to cover and that of the bank when offering loans that tend to have high interest rates. From the perspective of the specialist, the underlying problem is to analyze whether these financial products should continue to be allowed on the market, or whether they are like any other loan that people must process without involving their payroll.