Conasami cannot yet determine the possible effects of the outsourcing reform

In its monthly Report on the Behavior of the Economy presented by the Technical Directorate of the National Minimum Wage Commission (Conasami) told the representatives of workers and employers, that with the available data analyzed, “it is not possible to determine the effects of the reform on subcontracting.”

When analyzing the data from IMSS; the Conasami maintains that there have been changes in the registry of employers, as well as the number of workers by salary range and highlights that “in the case of changes by employer size, monthly increases are observed at almost all levels, except in those of more than 1,000 policyholders, which presented a slight drop. The largest increase occurred in the ‘not applicable’ range, followed by that between 51 and 250 policyholders”.

In annual comparison, only the one between 251 and 500 insured shows a reduction. “It is important to highlight that the interpretation of these movements is difficult due to the changes in the records derived from the reform of the Federal Labor Law regarding subcontracting. With the public data analyzed for this report, it is not possible to determine the effects of the reform”.

Some differences that have arisen in the labor market, Conasami points out, show the “Not applicable” range, assigned to workers in modalities 32, 33 and 40, and those insured with a “conventional” employer registry. The analysis of these data showed that they mostly correspond to the “Domestic Services” sector, which in previous years was included in one of the pattern size ranges. For this month, a monthly growth of 3.7% and annual growth of 130.9 percent is observed.

Likewise, it highlights that by type of employment, as of June 2021, after the legal modifications regarding subcontracting, “a significant reconfiguration of the 22 registries was observed, with significant increases in the permanent insured in the field and a fall in the eventual urban.

At the end of May, temporary urban employment registered an annual drop of 4.5%; while temporary employment in the countryside increased 5.1%, permanent urban employment grew 5.7%, and permanent employment in the countryside rose 20.9%.

In 2021, the Federal Labor Law was reformed to eliminate employer subcontracting and make way for specialized services, with which in one year 2.9 million workers were hired directly, as reported by the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS).

Bad practices continue, now it’s in the salary

For its part, the IMSS reported that carrying out joint work with the Secretary of Labor and Social Welfarel (STPS) and the Institute of National Workers’ Housing Fund (Infonavit), to detect employers who maintain bad practices by reporting a different salary than what they actually pay their workers.

They have found that consultants and firms that offer to reduce payroll and tax costs through schemes to simulate operations, that is, through illegal practices that carry an imminent risk, since these may constitute tax fraud and involve employers who resort to themselves as jointly responsible or participating in “organized crime”.