The 40-hour promise: another official story or a real change?
Marath Bolaños, the Secretary of Labor, came out today with the news that we were all waiting for: the 40-hour week “is now going to be a reality.” Sounds good, right? Congress has already approved it and now comes the complicated part: implementing it.
But here’s the detail they don’t want you to see. Things are going to be gradual. So gradual that it will end in 2030. Six years to reduce two hours per year. Why so long if it is already law?
“We are guaranteeing that there will be two days of rest,” Bolaños said in the morning.
The official swore and perjured that this will not affect the pockets. No salary cuts or fewer benefits. They will even prohibit overtime for minors, something that should have been done decades ago.
The curious thing is the argument: reduce fatigue and accidents. As if companies needed a law to understand that exhausted workers are less productive and more prone to errors.
Sheinbaum, for his part, did not miss the opportunity to compare himself with Argentina:
“In Argentina they approved 12 hours of work, a tremendous regression,” commented the president.
Of course, because in Mexico everything is done by consensus and never by imposition. According to her, this puts us “at the forefront in Latin America.”
I wonder: do we really need six years for what other countries did in less time? And that electronic record to review days… sounds like yet another bureaucratic system.
Historical memory hurts: how many labor reforms have remained gradual promises that fade over time. I hope this one is different, but my professional cynicism tells me that we hold on to the champagne until we see concrete results.
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