Forum “Challenges of the New Work Environment”

mayo 24, 2019

Once the Labor Reform was approved in general and in particular by the Senate, the industrialists of Nuevo León were forced to analyze the implications and challenges that it will bring; both for companies and for the country, through the forum entitled "Challenges of the New Work Environment".

Last Friday, May 17, before more than 750 attendees, CAINTRA held a forum with the objective of informing employers, Labor Relations executives and Human Resources the implications of the Labor Reform, its implementation challenges and the experiences of freedom of syndical association in other countries.

The event was divided into 4 panels, covering different scenarios and featuring distinguished speakers.

The first was exposed by the President of the Labor Commission of CONCAMIN, Octavio Carvajal Bustamante, and the Vice President in Social Security of COCAMIN, Ricardo Martínez Rojas, referring to the Labor environment from an International point of view.

The second presented the experiences of the Latin American countries before the labor union opening, taking as reference the cases of Argentina with his representative Mr. Horacio Las Heras, Colombia with Mr. Iván Quintero Martínez and Peru with Mr. Carlos Cadillo Ángeles.

It was of the utmost importance that the business leaders of Nuevo León could not only analyze the labor fields at a national level, but also at an international level, thus having the opportunity to compare and have the vision of the positive and negative effects that a labor reform entails in said system.

The third panel addressed the Labor Unions’ perspective of the Reform, where the challenges and consequences were exposed, including the worker’s freedom when choosing a labor union, as well as providing greater stability to employees and protecting the collective bargaining.

CAINTRA spoke with the Secretary General of the CTM of Nuevo León, Ismael Flores Cantú, also part of the speakers of this third panel.

He stressed that nowadays Labor unions and companies have job stability, product of the code with which they are governed, but it will be inevitable and it is evident that, when a new code enters, it will cause instability, especially from workers who will tend to demand more than the established percentages. On the other hand, the desire of some agencies to achieve widespread discontent because of this, by promising what they could not meet, in terms of wage increases of their workers.

"Organizations must understand, that they must work with social sense, so that they help the workers, one thing is the matter of the collective agreement and another to seek the economic improvement that is annually made".

Ismael Flores Cantú
Secretary General of the CTM

Finally, the Director of Labor Relations of CEMEX, Mr. Hugo Araiza Vázquez and the Legal Advisor of Arca Continental, Mr. Antonio Guerra discussed the challenges of the implementation of the New Labor Reform in companies.

There is concern on the part of organizations; this is because SMEs could be sentenced by not being able to resolve disputes due to their smaller structure, as well as layoffs made by their leaders.

Let’s recall that the laws that were modified and for which progress could be made in the approval of the Trade Treaty with the United States and Canada (T-MEC), were the following:

• Federal Labor Law.
• Organic Law of the Federation’s Judicial Power.
• Federal Public Defender Law.
• Institute of the National Housing Fund for Workers Law.
• Social Security Law.

Among the attendees of the event was the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS) delegate in Nuevo León, Ricardo Canavati Hadjópulos, who expressed the following:

"Doing this type of events is of the utmost importance, it's a subject that had been quiet for a long time, but it's worth taking it up again, we can see the workers of all the companies that are here, that the bosses are on the lookout".

To conclude the event, the President of CAINTRA, Mr. Adrián Sada Cueva made the following recommendations to all executives and businessmen present:

• Approach and associate with CAINTRA as we will be actively advising our partners in this transition. We will have a series of very practical workshops and our legal area supporting them continuously.
• Keep learning about the implications of the new law and what it means for you and your employees, in order to develop the necessary actions and changes in your company.
• Intensify communication and positive collaboration with your employees to generate a positive environment for your companies, that will allow greater security of current and future sources of employment in the company.

"I do not have the slightest doubt that Mexico is a country with great development opportunities; let us do the ordered and intelligent work to transition to a new labor scheme without problems".

Lic. Adrián Sada Cueva
President of CAINTRA

Subsequently, a press conference was held, in which the Vice President of Coparmex, Oscar Martínez Treviño, highlighted that in Nuevo León about 75% of labor disputes are conciliated without reaching a trial, therefore, companies of the entity will have to reinforce the areas of Human Resources, work to approach the labor force and generate greater productivity.

"I thought the event was excellent, I think they should continue to do it for the benefit of both the employer and the workers."

Ricardo Salinas
Labor Consultant

"I think it is very pertinent to make this type of events, to know the opinion of both the employers and the labor union sector, apart from the fact that very useful advice was given by the speakers to have a good relationship with our workers".

Luis Fernando Ibarra
Financial

"Although I was already aware of the changes that have been made, the forum helped me clarify doubts that had arisen, and the experiences that were presented from the other countries were very interesting."

Javier González
Viakable Operations