Reflections on some Challenges that the May 2019 Labor Reform Might Produce

Abstract

The 1970 Federal Labor Law has undergone reforms, additions, and repeals on the following dates: May 1, 1980, November 30, 2012 and May 1, 2019. In other words, the current law is that of 1970 but it has been patched up and amended repeatedly, all of which has caused multiple confusions in its interpretation, which in turn will be increased by the upcoming ordinary session that started on September 1, 2019, as it was announced by the Labor Commission of the Senate, in an Open Session that occurred on last July, which aims at resolving pending matters or parliamentary reservations which were not commented whatsoever, such as: outsourcing or subcontracting, union fees, burden of proof, etcetera. We do not understand why the Legislative Branch of our country has not promulgated, as in almost all other Latin American countries, a Substantive labor code, which should include the general principles of our discussion, the rights and obligations of individual and collective parties, as well as the labor authority and our Procedural Labor Law within the Federal Labor Code. Therefore, we are convinced that the best measure is to repeal the current Federal Labor Law.