Jared Laureles, Jessica Xantomila and Georgina Saldierna
La Jornada Newspaper
Monday, February 9, 2026, p. 9
Tomorrow the constitutional reform to reduce the working day to 40 hours will be ruled on in Senate committees, said the president of this chamber, Laura Itzel Castillo.
For this, the Constitutional Points, Legislative Studies and Labor commissions have already been summoned, in order to begin the analysis of the opinion starting at 10 in the morning. It is not ruled out that the issue will be brought to the plenary session the next day.
Meanwhile, members of the labor sector, specialists and groups insisted that the initiative requires adjustments, mainly, establishing in writing and “unambiguously” the reduction of the working day with two days of rest.
José Luis Carazo, representative of the sector in the Technical Council of the IMSS, warned that not stipulating the two days of rest in the law negatively impacts the health of workers and causes illnesses, absences and turnover of personnel in companies, which represents a cost of 3 percent of the gross domestic product.
He warned that by extending overtime from nine to 12 hours, people will work more (52 hours) and payment will become cheaper, since employers will provide a “small remuneration.”
He explained that currently, the first nine hours of extraordinary weekly work are paid double and, when this margin is exceeded, triple, in accordance with the Federal Labor Law. In contrast, the reform initiative establishes that when 12 hours are exceeded, double payment will be made.
The union leader indicated that of the 26.5 million workers with formal employment, between 44 and 46 percent receive between 1 and 1.4 minimum wages.
In this way, “for this group, an hour costs between 48 and 49 pesos, and that is what employers are going to pay double, that is, a little more than 90 pesos for the extra hour,” explained the representative of the labor sector before the National Minimum Wage Commission.
According to the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, non-compliance with the payment of overtime and the distribution of profits are among the main violations of companies.
They reject the modification of the employment relationship
Labor lawyer Ricardo Landero Aramburu pointed out in an interview that the initiative proposes to modify the employment relationship and recognize it when the person is hired for the time of “subordinate” activities and not when “they are at the disposal” of the employer.
“This is going to be very dangerous because it modifies the entire essence of labor law; the employer sector got up early to the Ministry of Labor and they are changing a point that has nothing to do with the 40-hour day,” he warned.
The same thing also happened when the reform was promoted to prohibit subcontracting and, in exchange for that, the employers asked to limit the payment of profits, he noted.
For its part, the National Front for the 40 hours announced a protest for tomorrow outside the Senate.
