Unanimity on paper, discontent in details
The Senate unanimously approved the reform that reduces the weekly working day from 48 to 40 hours. Sounds good, right? The problem is what the text does not say.
The reduction will be gradual until 2030. But here comes the first trick: it keeps intact the article that establishes a single day of rest for every six days worked. The promise of ‘weekend’ vanishes.
“Arithmetic does not lie: 40 ordinary hours plus eight overtime hours is still 48 hours a week,” declared PRI senator Carolina Viggiano.
The legislative cat in a hare
The opposition is clear. Morena celebrates the reform as a great advance, but the other parties see a hollow victory. They say that you change the number on the paper without touching the reality of fatigue.
Senator Clemente Castañeda was direct:
“To make it clear to us and not give us a hard time, six days of work, says the Constitution, one day of rest.”.
And he is right. The reform allows ‘agreements’ between employer and employee on the distribution of rest. In a country with such asymmetry of power, that sounds more like permission to abuse than real protection.
Even the PAN, usually a business ally, criticizes the lack of support for small businesses. Raymundo Bolaños Azocar warns that the ruling “stifles the majority of the country’s economic units” without offering real tax incentives.
Mexico will continue to be the OECD country with the most hours worked. The reform changes numbers, not lives. And that, friends, is cheating with the rules.
