Deputies approve that domestic workers have IMSS and all benefits

Enrique Mendez and Georgina Saldierna

Newspaper La Jornada
Friday, October 28, 2022, p. eleven

With 486 votes in favor and one abstention, the Chamber of Deputies yesterday approved reforms to the Social Security Law so that domestic workers have IMSS and the five insurances that said legislation establishes, such as retirement, unemployment in advanced age and old age.

The document, which is passed to the Executive for its publication, establishes that employers must enroll workers in Social Security from the beginning of the employment relationship, retain the corresponding worker quota and pay the quotas before the institute.

The approval with the vote of all the parties was given after the operation of a pilot program established by the IMSS as of April 1, 2019, in order to design and execute a special social security regime for these employees. Under this, as of December 2021, 41,373 people had joined the institute, of which 34,693 have registered 50,435 beneficiaries, mainly children, and it is estimated that this last figure could reach 68,000.

Program reports state that 67 percent of those who work in the home are women, with an average age of 50 years, and the remaining 33 percent are men, with an average of 54 years.

When substantiating the opinion before the full chamber, Angélica Ivonne Cisneros Luján (Morena) pointed out that this has historical significance for Mexico, since it represents an important step in the purpose of achieving universal access to social security, by laying the foundations for the incorporation of a sector of workers who had been discriminated against and made invisible, representing around 2.2 million.

He added that by being recognized as subjects of mandatory insurance, they will be entitled to the five benefits provided for in the IMSS law: sickness and maternity, work risks, disability and life, retirement, unemployment in advanced age and old age, as well as day care and social benefits.

In their session this Thursday, the deputies also approved, with 472 votes in favor and zero abstentions and votes against, changes to the Law on the Rights of Older Adults, so that there are special education programs and training scholarships that enable this population to access decent work.

In the same way, their training and access to new information and communication technologies will be promoted, establishes the minutes that will be turned over to the Senate for analysis.

Before starting the bridge for the Day of the Dead, the legislators endorsed reforms to the National Law of Penal Execution, to promote non-recidivism and adequate social integration of the sentenced, through the educational services that inmates receive.

If at the time the conditional release is granted, the prison authority does not have an electronic monitoring device, the judge may establish a judicial payment or security agreement sufficient to cover its cost. Once that measure is established, the release will proceed, the opinion states.