The Ministry of Labor plans to deliver in the coming days to the Congress of the Union the reform proposal to reduce the working day from 48 to 40 hours per week. Legislative sources estimate that it will be presented on November 20. Although in San Lázaro there are at least 16 registered initiatives on the subject, the Secretariat undertook a round of national dialogues to build its own version. Meanwhile, academics, businessmen and legislators agree that the reform could bring relevant social benefits, but also severe economic risks.
From the academic field, voices such as Antonio Ávalos, from the Universidad Panamericana, and Ángel Edoardo Buenrostro, from the University of Guadalajara, highlight the benefits of a greater number of hours of rest. They assure that heWorkers would have more time to spend with their families, invest in personal activities or study. This, they say, could translate into an increase in motivation, improvements in mental and physical health.
Federal representative Patricia Mercado, promoter of one of the initiatives, adds that there is no evidence that long hours generate greater productivity. On the contrary, it states that countries with shorter work weeks have achieved increases in efficiency.
From the Labor Commission in the Chamber of Deputies, PAN legislator Theodoros Kalionchiz de la Fuente considers that the proposal is positive and that The dialogue with employers should focus on how to prevent the reduction from leading to higher costs.
According to the Coparmex In Jalisco, an immediate reduction in working hours would cause operational and financial effects in 53% of companies, generating an estimated annual cost of 24,258 million pesos.
The magnitude of the impact is not minor: the measure would involve 961,773 formal workers in Jalisco who currently work more than 40 hours a week.
César de Anda Molina, coordinator of the Advisory Council for Innovation, Growth and Sustainable Development, warns that before modifying the working day, the minimum wage must be reviewed, since reducing hours without increasing real productivity could increase labor costs and generate distortions in sectors already affected by informality.
Along the same lines, the Secretary of Labor in Jalisco, Ricardo Barbosa, calls for finding a balance that allows improving the quality of life of workers without compromising the economic viability of businesses. EThe federal government has proposed that the reduction would be gradual and would culminate in 2030.
In the Chamber of Deputies, reform options have been considered with two days of rest a week and agreements between employers and employees that do not exceed 40 hours of work per week. THE INFORMATOR/Archive
Pros and cons
A favor
Greater rest time for workers. Improved well-being and health. Potential increase in productivity. Promotion of personal and professional development. And the expansion of labor rights.
against
Increase in labor costs and company closures. Need to expand the workforce. Risk of economic losses. Doubts about the real impact on productivity.
GUIDE
What does the proposal propose?
The Ministry of Labor and Social Security of the Federal Government plans to deliver in the coming days the reform proposal to reduce the working day from 48 to 40 hours a week.
However, in the Chamber of Deputies there are already different initiatives proposed by parliamentary factions to reduce working hours.
Among them, the proposal presented by the bench of Citizen Movement with which sections IV of Section A and II of Section B of Article 123 of the Mexican Constitution are reformed and which specifies that The reform will be so that there is a 5-day work week with two days of rest.
The MC initiative presents three transitional articles, which state that, if approved, the Congress of the Union would have a period of 180 days to issue secondary laws for the harmonization of the corresponding legislation.
The gradual nature of the reform will be for two years, explained the federal legislator of MC, Patricia Mercado, member of the Labor and Social Welfare Commission of the Chamber of Deputies.
“We proposed that it be a two-year gradualness: four hours and four hours to already have a 40-hour day with two days of rest,” he said in an interview.
The reform establishes the following: “Starting in the first year of its entry into force, workers will work half a day on the sixth day of work.”
“Starting in the second year of entry into force, workers will fully enjoy two days of rest for every five days of work, in accordance with the provisions of this Decree.”
Hay another proposal from the parliamentary faction of the PT which establishes a modification to article 50 of the Federal Labor Law that establishes that “The worker and the employer will set the length of the working day, which cannot exceed forty hours per week.”
The initiative proposes that the working day be 8 hours a day and thus guarantee that it does not exceed 40 hours a week: “respecting that it does not exceed more than eight hours a day or more than forty hours a week.”
Union Congress. The legislative process to present the reform proposal is still ongoing among deputies. SUN/A. Lopez
The “40-hour route” passes through Congress in search of consensus
Waiting for the Ministry of Labor to deliver its reform proposal to reduce the working day from 48 to 40 hours, The Chamber of Deputies has already received at least 16 initiatives proposed by parliamentary factions to reduce working hours in the country.
The legislative commission has undertaken a strategy known as the “40-hour route” in which they requested opinions on the labor reform, including work meetings, and whose strategy seeks to conclude with the approval of the initiative.
For now, two of its members are in favor of the proposal: Patricia Mercado, deputy of the Citizen Movement, and Theodoros Kalionchiz de la Fuente, secretary of the Commission and deputy of National Action.
Mercado is committed to a reform that benefits workers and makes them more productive.
“There is no evidence that working so many hours makes us more productive, quite the opposite: there is no growth. The solution to the lack of growth and productivity is not there. We are one of the (countries) that works the most hours and produces the least.”
The representative urges the Chamber of Deputies to approve the labor reform so that it can be implemented between 2026 and 2027.
Theodoros Kalionchiz de la Fuente describes the reform as “very good” and highlighted that There has been dialogue with the business sector to analyze the improvement of productivity with the reduction of the working day, as well as the payment of overtime and the minimum wage, among other points that concern businessmen.
“They have been working on those points of how to be productive, which is the main thing. Currently hiring a person has increased 30% from what it was done before.”
Business chambers warn of impacts due to labor reform
The business chambers of Jalisco call for dialogue and to consider possible effects on micro, small or medium-sized companies with the implementation of the 40-hour work day.
In the first instance, the Coparmex considered that an immediate reduction in the working day would have costs for companies and estimated that 53% would have an impact on their operations and finances, which is why they ask that it be done gradually and without neglecting the development of the companies.
“We have pointed out that the implementation must be viable, especially for micro, small and medium-sized companies, which represent 95% of the economic units and generate most of the employment. An immediate reduction would have significant costs: in Jalisco alone the annual impact would be around 24,258 million pesos, and 53% of the companies anticipate effects on their operation and finances,” said Raúl Flores, president of Coparmex Jalisco.
He added that sectors such as commerce, manufacturing and hospitals would be especially affected with an increase in payroll and Saturday bonuses. and calls for Congress to receive a complete and technically supported proposal.
The Canaco Guadalajara spoke out and asked that it be considered that 90% of the country’s economy comes from micro, small and medium-sized businesses, which is why they point out that generating a reduction in the working day without considering the parameters of productivity could cause profound economic damage to Mexican families.
Canaco also calls for the informality that exists, which they claim exceeds 50 percent of the total, which implies less revenue for governments, unfair competition for formal companies and also less protection for workers. so they ask for incentives.
Industriales Jalisco warns of economic and operational implications for thousands of MyPimes, which generate most of the jobs in the country, which is why they ask for a technical and participatory dialogue to reach a consensus with the labor reform.
Furthermore, they call on other national actors and local congresses to avoid actions that fragment the already established dialogue and not to politicize the labor reform, calling for unity on the part of all sectors of the population.
On November 20, the Federal Government through the Ministry of Labor and Social Security will present the reform initiative to reduce the weekly working day from 48 to 40 hours.
The chambers note that it is micro, small and medium-sized companies that would face the greatest challenges in the implementation of the 40 hours per week. THE INFORMATOR/Archive
BACKDROP
Mexicans, among those who have the most working hours
The International Labor Organization (ILO) presented a technical note on working hours in some countries around the world. Latin America and the Caribbean have a record of presenting effective and habitual hours of work considerably higher on average than those of high-income OECD countries.
According to the ILO, Mexico is part of the group of countries whose working day is established at 48 hours a week, the same situation as in other Latin American nations such as Argentina, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Paraguay and Uruguay.
Colombia and Guatemala are the two Latin countries with the most hours worked, followed by Mexico with an average of 45 hours, although the working days are 48 hours. Behind these nations appear Honduras, El Salvador, Peru, Costa Rica and Paraguay.
The ILO technical note establishes that there is a record of 44 hours of work per week in Brazil, El Salvador, Honduras, the Dominican Republic and Venezuela and 40 hours in Ecuador.
The list of countries with the longest working hours is headed by Asian countries, mainly India, which is the second most populated country in the world. There, their workers are exposed to 56 hours of work per week, more than 12 than the average schedule, according to the ILO.
Bhutan is second on the list, with an average of 53.3 hours per week; Bangladesh closes the top 3 with 50.4 hours and in fourth place is Uganda with 50.3 hours.
On the other hand, the countries that accumulate the fewest working hours are mostly European, with the Netherlands appearing in first place with 29.8 working hours. Surprisingly, it is followed by an African country like Rwanda, which has an established 29.9 hours, and another Asian country, Iraq, which has an average of 31.6 hours.
