Mexico City, March 17th, 2022.
On March 15th, 2022, the Mexican Senate ratified Convention190 of the International Labor Organization ("ILO") on workplace violence and harassment, which aims to force employers to establish preventive and disciplinary measures to eradicate any type of physical and/or psychosocial violence that workers may suffer in the provision of their services.
The most relevant aspects of the Convention are:
- An inclusive approach, with a gender perspective.
- Global definitions regarding violence, harassment and discrimination based on gender issues.
- Control of the application of sanctions, means of prevention against acts of violence and repair of damages.
- Raise awareness on workplace violence and harassment.
The Convention will be registered with the ILO before its general director. It will enter into full force and effects as Mexican legal framework the following year and must be published by decree in the Federation's Official Gazette.
The purpose of the Convention is to counter negative attitudes and behaviors for the free development of the person within the workplace. Companies will have to create or update their policies, protocols, and mechanisms to achieve a harmonious environment free of violence and harassment.
Currently, within the Mexican laws and regulations, there are already some current obligations that attend to the content of said Convention, among which the following stand out:
- The elaboration of a protocol jointly with employees for the prevention of discriminatory actions for reasons of gender, violence, harassment of any kind including sexual , based on article 132 section XXXI of Mexican Federal Labor Law; and
- Development of a policy and mechanisms for the prevention, monitoring and application of sanctions, based on the Official Mexican Standard NOM-035-STPS-2018 for psychosocial risk factors at work-Identification, analysis and prevention ("NOM-035") , which focuses on:
a) Prevention of psychosocial risk factors.
b) Prevention of workplace violence.
c) Promotion of a favorable organizational environment.
The Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, through the federal labor inspection department, must ensure that said measures and obligations are applied in work centers. If irregularities are observed and/or detects any type of non or miss-compliance with said provisions, it may impose fines that may vary from 50 to 5,000 UMAS for each possible non or miss-compliance attributable to the employer, which is equivalent to an amount of MXN$4,811.00 up to MXN$481,100.00 Mexican pesos. These amounts may be increased depending on the number of detected breaches or omissions.
In preparation for ILO Convention 190 entry into force, we recommend that companies assess compliance to determine the items to fulfill its requirements.
The members of the Labor area in Basham, Ringe y Correa, S.C. will be available should you need to further comment on the contents of this newsletter.
S I N C E R E L Y,
Jorge De Presno
David Puente
Álvaro González
