The Senate of the Republic approved on February 14 the initiative to reform the Federal Labor Law in its articles 3 and 25 related to the Mental Health at Work. The minutes were sent to the Chamber of Deputies for your discussion.
The reform aims to ensure that workplaces guarantee mental health conditions and establish protocols for the prevention and eradication of violence, including verbal and psychological.
In the explanatory statement, the Senate establishes that there is a prevalence of anxiety in Mexico, which went from 15% of the population before the pandemic to 50% after the first waves of the pandemic. Covid-19the largest increase among all the countries of the organization and the highest level observed.
And on the other hand, in Mexico, work absenteeism related to psychological illnesses represents a loss of 23.8% in employee productivity, according to the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare (STPS).
In addition, he explained that it is estimated that for the following year the expenditure allocated to the care of psychosocial occupational disabilities will increase from 11 to 15%. The lack of attention to psychosocial risk factors in the world of work costs the national productive apparatus close to 16,000 million pesos annually.
In our country, one of the most recent advances in this matter occurred on October 23, 2018 with the publication of the Official Mexican Standard NOM-035-STPS-2018, psychosocial risk factors at work-Identification, analysis and prevention .
It is important to highlight that employers or employers must update the general working conditions and issue the Comprehensive Program for the Promotion and Protection of the Human Right to Mental Health at Work within a period of 180 calendar days, counted from the entry into force of this Decree.
While the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, in coordination with the Health Secretarymust issue the Guidelines for the Protection and Promotion of Mental Health at Work, referred to in article 25, section XI of this Law, within a period of 180 calendar days, counted from the entry into force of this Decree.
