Breathe
By Aideé Zamorano
In the middle of 2022, from the working class we had to closely follow up on a proposal that came out of the Senate, my children will not believe me that before we only had access to six days of rest and that some business chambers were against the improvement. According to ILO (International Labor Organization) Convention 132, people should have access to three working weeks of paid vacation. In Mexico, as of January 1 of this year, twenty-two million people who are affiliated with the IMSS (Mexican Social Security Institute) earn twelve days of vacation upon completing one year of service for the same organization.
The reform in the Federal Labor Law is progressive, what does that mean? It means that it increases over time, and it is excellent news for those of us who have been with the same employer for more than five years. As we advance in seniority, we earn two extra days of vacation for each year worked, until we reach twenty days (a condition that occurs on the fifth anniversary). After that, each five-year anniversary gives us access to another two extra days of rest, that is, if you have between six and ten years with the same company, (like me) you will have twenty-two days a year.
But now, what's next?
Monitor compliance, demand correct application. If your workplace is forcing you to go to work on Saturdays to "make up for the excess of days you will be off, or they increased your workday, or cut back on meal hours, or they are conditioning your right to rest" you can take it to the conciliation boards, to PROFEDET (Federal Labor Defense Attorney's Office), or to the Ministry of Labor itself.
We have not even completed one month with this benefit and already there are comments about the different "strategies" that some organizations are implementing to continue to violate the employees. There are some organizations that take advantage of the lack of knowledge of the population to continue reproducing labor precariousness. It is very important that all unions join in the communication and explanation of this reform. It took us fifty-two years to increase vacation days. We cannot take this right for granted, we must have an active participation and instead, continue to fight to extend the benefit. It occurs to me that we should resume the dialogue with our legislators and make sure that they promote the initiative for the reduction of working hours.
Our employers are not understanding the benefit of disconnection. The continuity of operations of any business depends on the health of its teams; a burden of stress, anxiety and/or depression puts people's livelihoods at risk. Enjoying leisure time increases productivity and decreases turnover in companies.
And no, vacation days are NOT to care for our daughters and sons, the elderly or people with disabilities, we have that fight pending, we have to achieve a systemic change in which in addition to the right to rest, co-responsibility for care is also promoted from the workplace and written in our framework laws.
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