▲ Protest of retired railroad workers in the Angel of Independence demanding their settlements.Photo Jesús Villaseca, archive
Andrea Becerril
Newspaper La Jornada
Sunday, February 13, 2022, p. 8
Twenty-five years after then-president Ernesto Zedillo privatized Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México (FNM), the federal government continues to assume the costs and in the second half of 2021 alone it had to channel nearly 1,300 million pesos from the public budget to pay of pensions and benefits to 20 thousand 479 retired railroad workers.
According to an actuarial study, the FerronalesJub Trust, created to pay pensions and benefits for rail workers, has a deficit of close to 30 billion pesos and it is estimated that the agency will conclude activities in 2081.
In fact, in 2015 the incorporation of 494 new retirees was authorized, who were integrated into the FerronalesJub Trust and by order of the labor authority, adjustments were made in 1,676 pensions.
According to a report that the National Institute to Return the Stolen to the People (Indep) sent to the Senate, the FNM liquidation plan, which began in June 2001, was expected to conclude in June 2021, but in the second half of last year was updated.
While the liquidation is finalized, Indep is in charge of complying with and transferring to the Ministry of Communications and Transportation the obligations with retirees and pensioners, attend to labor lawsuits, environmental matters and allocate the remaining assets.
In addition to the payment of pensions, at the end of December 2021, 3,833 labor lawsuits were in litigation and the amount for conviction awards is more than one billion pesos, with an increase of 3 percent compared to 2020, due to the update of lost wages and retirement pensions.
The report states that since the beginning of the disincorporation of FNM, in 2001, former railway workers filed 34 thousand 234 labor lawsuits, demanding pensions and other benefits. Of these, 30,401 have already concluded, the most recent in the period covered by the report. These are 45 lawsuits filed by 240 workers, who received almost 84 million pesos.
In addition, Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México in liquidation (FNML) faces 284 commercial lawsuits and even criminal ones, which represent a contingent liability of more than 4 billion pesos.
In addition to this, the entity in liquidation has environmental obligations to fulfill for more than one billion pesos, in 35 sites located in various entities in which the former parastatal caused damage to the natural environment. Of the 35 places pending remedy, 27 are in concession areas, but even so, FNML must cover the damage, in some cases jointly with the company, as occurred in the state of Mexico, in which it signed an agreement with Ferrocarril y Terminal of the Valley of Mexico (Ferrovalle), for which it contributed 47 million pesos.
The report specifies that 125 properties owned by FNML were sold, with which 372 million 679 thousand pesos were obtained.
