Deputies analyze changes to the vacation reform to make its application more flexible

The reform to extend the holidays is in the field of the Chamber of Deputies, the opinion would be voted in commissions before the end of the session and changes to the minutes sent by the Senate are analyzed. The modifications could focus on the flexibility to take vacation days and on a transition period for the implementation of the changes, confirmed the deputy Manuel Baldenebro Arredondo (Morena), president of the Labor Commission.

“We know that the reform comes unanimously from the Senate and I, as a worker and head of the table, have every interest in seeing this come out. Although it is mandatory that we have to go up to 12 days in the first year, and it will be so because we are going to do it that way, what we are looking at –because I also hear the voice of the workers– is that, although you may have the right to 12 days, that it is only mandatory to use half of the days continuously and that the other half have the freedom of workers to decide when to take them,” said the legislator in conversation with The Economist.

As context, the opinion approved by the Senate, in addition to doubling the minimum vacation time within the Federal Labor Law (LFT), also establishes that people must enjoy a period that cannot be less than 12 consecutive days.

“We are looking to make the issue more flexible in worker benefit and also of the small businessman. For example, if you have a pizzeria and the person who makes the pizzas has to be away for 12 days, you may need to hire another pizzeria, but if it’s six days, maybe if you’re the owner and you know how to prepare them, you can join him for the meantime; Or if it is a larger company, perhaps between the other pizza maker and the apprentice we can take six days off, ”he explained.

In this sense, the legislator also pointed out that in the case of companies that assign the month in which workers must take their vacations, maintaining the minute with the 12 continuous days would leave the workforce with few additional days available to have a break. at another time that you want or even to have the possibility of being absent due to family matters.

“The worker needs that flexibility and it is fair that there are continuous days so that the worker restsbut if we force him to take the 12 continuous days and the employer with his vacation order assigned them to him in March and his daughter marries in April or December, he no longer has a way to be absent and surely he would like to have five days for the daughter’s wedding or for reasons of force majeure, an appointment to get the passport, for example, “he shared.

In this sense, Manuel Baldenebro ruled out that in the Chamber of Deputies the days and the staggered formula approved by the Senate will be reduced and he trusted that before the end of the current session the opinion will be approved in the commission. “We have a hot potato that needs to be taken out.”

In addition to making the way to take vacation days more flexible, the president of the Labor Commission in San Lázaro acknowledged that the possibility of a transition period for companiesalthough there are many voices within the Chamber of Deputies that are in favor of maintaining the transitory articles as approved by the senators.

Baldenebro Arredondo assured that the holiday reform It is a priority issue and that “Mexico cannot continue as one of the countries with fewer days off”, but considered that these points should be analyzed before approving the minutes to avoid a negative impact on small and medium-sized companies and improve the benefits for workers.

Workers ask for more vacations

According to an OCC World survey, 85% of workers perceives it feasible for companies to increase paid vacation days; only 9% consider that this would not be possible.

To ensure that the modification to the LFT is implemented in practice, the surveyed employees themselves consider that companies should focus on:

• Good organization
• Work for objectives
• Use of technological tools
• effective leadership
• Effective assignment of tasks

Among the advantages of increasing Holidays that workers perceive stand out: greater happiness and well-being at work, increased productivity, improved attraction and retention of talent, reduced turnover and greater competitiveness for the business.