Mexican Workers May Soon Enjoy Longer Annual Vacation Time If Senate Proposal Passes

Mexican workers could be getting more time off soon while being compensated if Senators will consider it.

At present, Mexican employees are given paid leave that is less than the one recommended by the United Nations.

However, if the bill gets the nod of senators, the paid leave of employees, particularly the ones who have completed one year of service would increase from the current 6 days to 12 days a week. This was part of the proposal raised by Citizens Movement party Senator Patricia Mercado, Mexico News Daily reported.

Moreover, workers would get an additional two days of vacation time for each additional year of service that they complete during their first five years of employment.

But after that, they would have to work for another five years for them to qualify for an additional two days of paid leave.

The proposal was presented to the Senate’s Labor and Social Welfare committee, whose members are set to debate. They are scheduled to vote next Tuesday.

If the “decent vacations” are approved, this will progress to the Senate for consideration by all 128 senators.

However, it should be noted that this is not the first time that such a proposal has been passed. Similar ones were previously introduced to congress but were not approved. Hence, it will be interesting if the bill from Mercado will be able to pull through and become law.

Established in 1970, the (International Labor Organization) ILO’s “Holidays with Pay Convention” states that “every person to whom this Convention applies shall be entitled to an annual paid holiday” of at least “three working weeks for one year of service.”

The standard working week in Mexico is six days, so Mexican workers would be entitled to 18 days of paid leave per year.

On the employer’s side, labor lawyer Jorge Sales bats that increasing paid vacations would be a huge burden. He adds that the government wouldn’t cover any of the additional costs incurred by employers.