STPS prepares new criteria and inspection programs in outsourcing

The subcontracting reform did not conclude with the direct hiring of 3 million workers that was achieved in 2022, and whose workers already receive their legal benefits (social security and utilities); Now the part of compliance and labor inspection is in full swing, and it is expected that in the first quarter of the year there will be an accumulation of data that will make it possible to show the sectors that comply and those who maintain a simulation, at the same time that the new inspection program on the matter.

In an interview with El Economista, Alejandro Salafranca, head of the Decent Work Unit of the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, explained that the agency has issued, through the Official Gazette of the Federation, two agreements that establish criteria for inspection, the first for export agro-industry and the second linked to the industry of tourist and lodging destinations. The foregoing, after the first year of the reform in terms of subcontracting, where they found fields of opportunity where there are compliances -as in the harvest of red fruits and in those that are not -in the avocado sector- those breaches could occur from a misreading of the law, a deficient interpretation of the law.

In this sense, Salafranca explained that the first two criteria published -on November 14 and December 12, 2022- obey sectors in which there were many doubts and simulations continued to be committed.

“The agreement of November 14, by the way, widely exposed and discussed with the sectors, clarifies that it cannot be that the day laborers remain trapped in the confusion of whether they are the ranchers or the owners of the orchards or the owners of the exporters, their patterns; It must be made clear that the entire segment, the entire value circuit of the agribusiness must create formal employment, absolutely with a clear pattern,” Salafranca stated.

Another of the sectors where this year, he added, in which they have seen that there is a huge opportunity for improvement is in the hotel and lodging sector.

“It is a sector that has made a great effort to comply with the provisions of the law; but, in the inspections we still detect enormous fields of opportunity, enormous; So, the objective was very clear guidelines”, he commented.

In this sense, for the inspectors the rule is very simple, “the fundamental tasks of a hotel must be contracted by the hotel. You cannot subcontract an intermediary to supply you with reception or kitchen staff or chambermaids”.

More agreements with clear criteria

These two will not be the only agreements issued by the STPS, since it hopes that new criteria will be published after the data analysis carried out by the agency. “In the future it is to see, as the inspections progress, in which sectors the criteria become necessary, always with the objective that whoever inspects or the inspected is clear that it is possible and that it is not possible to shelter and under of this law”.

pilar.martinez@eleconomista.mx