Private sector, upset at AMLO’s initiative to regulate outsourcing

López Obrador stated that the legal reform for labor outsourcing prohibits the existence of companies dedicated solely to that work.

The Mexican government launched a legal initiative on Thursday that limits the outsourcing or subcontracting of millions of employees in the country, a plan that was received with discomfort by one of the employers and that anticipates a new clash between the administration of Andrés Manuel López Obrador and the private sector.

López Obrador, who assumed power in 2018, maintains a fragile balance in his relationship with powerful business associations on issues such as managing the coronavirus pandemic and supporting companies hit by the economic depression.

The governor affirmed at a press conference that the legal reform for the labor subcontracting or outsourcing sector, which prohibits the existence of companies dedicated exclusively to that work and only authorizes it in specific cases, will be sent in the next few hours to the Chamber of Deputies.

Together with the president, the Secretary of Labor, Luisa Alcalde, remarked that “work is a right and a social duty, it is not a commodity” and explained that some 4.6 million workers are subcontracted in the country, a figure rises annually by 200,000 people.

Half of that sector, which sees their rights to seniority, to severance pay or to maternity leave or accident, works in large companies with more than 150 workers, in the manufacturing industry or tourism, he denounced.

López Obrador directly reproached the Mexican firm Alsea, which operates Starbucks cafes in Mexico and other brands such as Burger King, for having laid-off workers during the coronavirus pandemic, without providing details about the employees’ claims.

The president of the Employers’ Confederation of the Mexican Republic (Coparmex), Gustavo de Hoyos, criticized the project on Twitter, considering that “it betrays the commitment to build this legal change based on consensus with the private sector.”

In December, Carlos Salazar, director of the Business Coordinating Council, another employer, asked not to “criminalize” outsourcing, when it became known that the ruling party Morena intended to launch a legal reform that considered that such activity could be “criminal.”

Source: forbes.com.mx

Mexico Daily Post