The extension requested by 12 states to new model of labor justice, as there are a number of challenges to its implementation, points out Rosa María Nava Acuña, Chief Director of the Center for Reconciliation of the State of Mexico. This entity is the most populous in the country and where the conciliatory model that determines labor reform has already begun.
Since November 2020, it has reached economic agreements for workers for a total amount of more than 806 million pesos, he reported in an interview. “Because we were the first at the federal level, we had several challenges,” but one year and two months after operating the center, “we are a benchmark,” he assures. “We have provided support and advice to 22 states.”
Nearly 17 million people live in the state of Mexico and there are more than 800,000 economic units employing millions of workers, for whom there are 100 conciliators. This is the center with the most specialized staff.
On January 18, the Coordinating Council for the Implementation of the Labor Law Reform (CCIRSJL) agreed to ask Congress for an extension so that the reconciliation centers and local labor courts in the 12 states of the pending country would join the new model in operation on 3 October and not on 1 May 2022 as planned. The delay is due to the lack of budget for infrastructure and operations of these organizations.
Derived from the labor reform of 2019, the local councils of conciliation and arbitration they will gradually disappear and make way for centers where an agreement between the parties is sought and, once this procedure is exhausted and if the case is not resolved in that case, they will progress to a court.
This change of such magnitude required that it be carried out in three phases. The first started in 2020, in eight entities. The second was exported in 2021, in 12 states and the last one will be exported in 2022 in 12 states.
Private conciliators, the next project
For the first year of operations, the center received 84 million pesos, 40 million of that amount came from the federation and 44 million from the state budget. With these resources, “the capacity part, the offices, the conditioning, the equipment, the recruitment of the staff and the training” started, among other expenses.
“It is not yet authorized for 2022, but we have requested 83 million pesos, to continue to consolidate reconciliation in all factors of production ”.
With this budget, they also intend to start the project of the network of private conciliators. It is an “external service” of private staff, “we are going to give individuals the ability to bring reconciliation to the workplace, to the unions, but always with control” of the agency.
Those who want to be part of this network must be certified in the competition standard EC1250, for the settlement of labor disputes, granted by the National Council for Standardization and Certification of Labor Powers (Ken).
The Reconciliation Center will continue to be the one with “the ability to control,” he explains, so it will keep pace with those who form that private network and will be in charge of their evaluation. The agreements entered into by these individuals “will be endorsed by the Center.”
According to the official, they already have the concept reform A law of the Mexican State Reconciliation Center and its regulations to be submitted to the local Congress.
The will, the assertion of reconciliation
Until now, the Reconciliation Center of the State of Mexico has received 40 684 conciliation requests. Breach of contract, unjustified dismissal and non-payment of the severance pay are the three main conflicts that come to them.
In accordance with section 685 Ter of the Federal Labor Act (LFT), cases of discrimination based on pregnancy, reasons of sex, sexual orientation, race, religion, ethnic origin, social status or harassment or sexual harassment are exempt from conciliation. can go directly to court.
“However, we have had cases of pregnant workers who comes to ask for reconciliation ”. In the Tlalnepantla office, they mediated the case of an employee who was fired for that reason, but she chose to end the conflict at that stage and not sue in court.
“We have an obligation to employment rights and fundamental and we stick to the reconciliation principle, which is good faith and impartiality, neutral but extremely sensitive to these issues ”.
The big difference between the Reconciliation Councils and these centers is that this model is “totally self-compiled. This means that the worker, like the employer himself, when he goes to the centers, will have a nimble, flexible, free and above all impartial process, in which they can get the resolution of their disputes in a period of at most. 45 days”.
By agreeing on a reconciliation agreement “We give legal certainty to the parties and we elevate their voluntariness, which is the essence of the procedure,” he points out.
Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx