Yesterday, the Senate of the Republic received a new bill that seeks to raise the vacation minimum to which workers in Mexico are entitled and double the current floor contemplated in the Federal Labor Law (LFT), one of the lowest globally. With this new proposal, the Upper House adds three initiatives in this regard.
Senator Patricia Mercado (MC) presented this Thursday an initiative for working people to enjoy a vacation period of at least 12 days upon completion of the first year of service in a company, which will increase by two days for each subsequent year until accumulating 20 days. Subsequently, as contemplated in the current scheme, it will increase by two days when completing a five-year cycle.
Currently the LFT establishes a minimum vacation period of six days. According to the World Policy Analysis Center, our country is one of the economies where workers enjoy fewer vacation days, a level that is comparable to the reality of nations such as Nigeria, China, Uganda, the Philippines, Malaysia or Thailand, which make up the group of countries with a period of less than 9 days.
At the Latin American level, the story is no different. Mexico is also one of the countries in the region with the most precarious regulation in this area. In Cuba, Panama or Nicaragua, for example, workers enjoy 30 days of vacation In his first year of service, for a Mexican to equal that amount, he would have to work for 45 continuous years in the same company.
“The poor working conditions faced by working people in our country significantly affect the quality of life of citizenship, which is reflected in the fact that our country occupies the 39th place out of 40 in the Index for a Better Life”, Patricia Mercado, secretary of the Senate Labor Commission, points out in her initiative.
The proposal states that Accumulated days for seniority prior to the entry into force of the reform, they will be respected and added to the new legal minimum.
In the five decades of validity of the Federal Labor Law, the regulatory framework of vacations has not been reformed, paradoxically, the same validity has the agreement 132 of the International Labor Organization (ILO) in which it recommends a minimum floor of 18 days of paid vacation.
“It is therefore urgent to have significant and palpable improvements for the workers in the guarantee of your rights and the conditions in which they carry out their activities, in consensus with the employer sector, trade union organizations and citizens who experience precariousness on a daily basis”, points out the legislator.
This lag in holiday scheme, Patricia Mercado believes, is aligned with a cultural bond that gives greater value to people’s work for the number of hours they spend at work and not for what they contribute. However, rest is also important for productivity.
Multiple Impact Benefit
Through social networks, legislators from Movimiento Ciudadano have created the movement #HolidaysWorthyNow to promote the improvement of this labor provision. This proposal is added to the initiatives presented by the Labor Party (PT) and the Social Encounter Party (PES) in the Senate to raise the minimum floor to 10 and 18 days, respectively.
“The improvement of Labor conditions It is also a condition to reduce the high rates of informality in the country, generating greater attractions for people to decide to join the formal market”, explains Patricia Mercado.
Among the arguments of the initiatives, it also highlights the positive impact for the Tourism sector by guaranteeing more paid vacation days.
Although little has been said about the subject from the executive, the president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador he affirmed in one of his morning conferences that the vacation period is low and fair; in that tenor, he promised to attend to this matter.
