Application of labor reform, focus of the ILO for 2023

We are here in Mexico, at an important moment in which the country is ratifying new agreements, agreements on domestic workers, and that is not minor; recently on violence, sexual harassment and the workplace. These elements may seem simple, but they are important moments, that generates an agenda between the employer and the job”

Pedro Américo Furtado, director of the ILO office in Mexico.

The office of the International Labor Organization (ILO) in Mexico is preparing an intense agenda for 2023 in which it can provide support, through international agreements, the same in union aspects, as in the new judicial system in labor matters, as well as how to involve the workers of section A (private initiative) and B (government) in matters of conciliation as established by the labor reform; In addition, to open the discussion on the regulation of “atypical” forms of work, such as digital platforms.

In an interview, Pedro Américo Furtado, director of the ILO Office in Mexico, explains that “what we are about to see is the impact that this reform is going to generate, not now, now there is a lot of pressure for concrete results, which we are already having with the collective contracts that we are already in the process of legitimization, but that is trying to know the importance of collective contracting”.

He stressed that “we are here in Mexico, at an important moment in which the country is ratifying new agreements, agreements on domestic workers, and that is not minor; recently on violence, sexual harassment and the workplace. These elements may seem simple, but they are important moments, that generates an agenda between the employer and the job; and the employer in a labor context, so that the employer, beyond the working conditions beyond the wages, we move to decent jobs”.

The ILO representative in Mexico explained that the pandemic brought new, atypical forms of employment (digital platforms), for which reason he launched the questions that try to address: what type of employment is it? in what conditions are we working? What contracts do we have with the company that hires us elsewhere? And above all, tripartite dialogue must take place to reach agreements that guarantee the best employment conditions.

Likewise, it was said that it is important to start proposing strategies on occupations that are no longer the most relevant, “we have to look for mechanisms so that the current labor force, whose occupation is no longer important in the productive process, can be reinventing itself , positioning itself in the world of work”.

Agreement 190

A priority for 2023, said the executive, is for the Mexican government to establish a program with counterparts in the world of work that allows compliance with the recent ratification of Convention 190 on violence and sexual harassment.

They want, he explained, “a policy under which there are no violent work spaces; Well, after ratification, Mexico must demonstrate that it is complying or not with the norms that as a country it incorporated into its legal structure”.

In addition to the above, issues such as child labor, forced labor, health and safety at work, domestic workers, teleworking, digital platforms, green jobs are added to the agenda, “they are all the issues that the ILO agenda as The office here in Mexico is trying to promote, strengthen what already existed and, of course, the whole issue, how the productive sector could also take advantage of these conditions to generate more and better jobs”.

pilar.martinez@eleconomista.mx