They ask to reconsider a 34% cut to the labor budget

Jared Laureles and Jessica Xantomila

La Jornada Newspaper
Sunday, November 24, 2024, p. 8

If the 34 percent cut to the budget of the Federal Center for Conciliation and Labor Registration is approved, Mexico could be questioned in the next review of the T-MEC, given that our country assumed the commitment to provide sufficient resources to the new labor justice systemto guarantee union democracy, collective bargaining and improved salaries, specialists said.

Graciela Bensusán, researcher at the Metropolitan Autonomous University (UAM), considered that there is no justification for reducing the resources of this institution, which is the heart of the 2019 labor reformso –he said– the federal government must reconsider the allocation of the budget on labor for 2025, both due to the commitments to Mexican workers and those contracted in the trade agreement.

We already have a complicated agenda in the renegotiation; It is not fair either for the country or for its trading partners that these instances, which are fundamental for compliance with the commitments contained in Chapter 23 and in the annexes to 31-A and 31-B, suffer a reduction. of the T-MEC, related to labor matters and the processes of union democracy.

The Federation Expenditure Budget project foresees an allocation of 447 million pesos to this Conciliation Center for 2025, a figure lower than the 663 million 344 thousand pesos that were channeled in 2024.

The academic indicated that the reduction in the budget of the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare (STPS) would put the labor inspection in the country at risk, since a 13 percent cut is expected in real terms and that despite the fact that had insufficient resources in previous years, this area has done a great job extraordinary in monitoring conditions in workplaces.

Bensusán insisted that sufficient resources must be guaranteed to the responsible entities to promote and apply legislationthat is, to the STPS, the Federal Labor Center and its local conciliation bodies, as well as the labor courts.

Héctor de la Cueva, coordinator of the Center for Labor Research and Trade Union Consulting, said that it is worrying that the government plans to reduce the institution, since it still we are very far from there being union democracy.