By RICARDO CASTILLO

Negotiations on the controversial personnel outsourcing legislation bill proposed to the Chamber of Deputies by Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) on Nov. 12 have been postponed until February 2021, the president announced on Wednesday, Dec. 9.

During an early meeting at the National Palace with business leaders and labor representatives, AMLO said that the details of the bill will be determined through a “public consultation,” or referendum, in order to regulate both hiring practices and corporate profit sharing with workers.

Business leaders representing industrial chambers were in staunch disagreement over the bill backed by Labor Secretary Luisa María Alcalde, who explained that liaising with the opposing business sector have pushed the bill into further discussions.

Rumor has it that the head of the Mexican Workers Confederation (CTM), the nation’s largest trade union, Carlos Aceves del Olmo, left the gathering “fuming” in rage because the employee outsourcing bill had not been approved the way the unions wanted it.

Meanwhile, López Obrador said, “Nothing can be imposed; everything must be in accordance with reason and workers’ rights.”

“We have decided to pay heed requests for dialogue solicitations and further consultation made by the entrepreneurial and labor sectors so as to reinitiate a process to reach an agreement on these issues by listening to each other and putting up front the general interest, in this case, that being the nation’s development and workers,” he said.

Both parties, entrepreneurs and labor, seemed to agree that the practice of personnel outsourcing has been abused not only to exploit workers. but also to avoid paying taxes.

Business pledged to make an immediate start on regularizing payrolls in accordance with the bill sent by AMLO in tandem with Labor Secretary Alcalde, claiming they need time to come up with a fair profit-sharing system, hence the postponement of floor debate at the Chamber of Deputies.

In addition, the proposed bill stipulates that employers must stop the practice of making massive furloughs in December in order to avoid paying workers both the Christmas bonus and profit sharing.

Authorities at the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) and the Tax Administration Service (SAT) unit of the Treasury Secretariat will serve as watchdogs of those who perform these illegal practices, slapping them with administrative sanction or criminal charges.

“I’m calling on the business sector to continue working together as we always have,” said the CTM’s Aceves del Olmo.

“Many workers depend on this. Not all companies use outsourcing practices, but many of those who do have abused it. There is such a thing as white and black outsourcing.”

Business Coordinating Council (CCE) President Carlos Salazar Lomelín said that that there must be trilateral coordination to prevent and avoid worker abuse.

…Dec. 10, 2020