As you may know, there have been recent changes to the Federal Labor Law that affects the domestic workers that those that employ them. What you may not know, is this has been in the works since 2018 when a case of an 80-year-old domestic worker was brought all the way to the Supreme Court. This woman worked for the same family for over 57 years and was terminated at the age of 80, with no finiquito, no social benefits, and no retirement income. Her case lead the way for domestic workers to fight for the same social benefits afforded to over 75% of workers in Mexico. And after 4 years of pilot programs, legislation, and decrees, the Federal Labor Law was officially changed on November 16, 2022 making it mandatory for employees to enroll their domestic workers in the IMSS social security system of Mexico beginning January 1, 2023.
This landmark ruling and 4 years of work now mandates they have access to a bucket of social programs, including medical benefits for them and their family, paid maternity/paternity leave, paid sickness and disability leave, worker’s compensation insurance, life insurance and funeral expenses, free childcare and low interest home loans, and probably most importantly, a pension benefit so that they can build for their retirement.
The IMSS system is by no means perfect, but it is an enormous protective system for the low-wage people many of us employ. What used to be possible to ignore is now a matter of law – even if your employee comes only four hours per week; if it’s pretty regular, it probably is covered by the law.
It’s worth reconsidering any reluctance, as there is now an easy and inexpensive way to handle the IMSS bureaucracy; AND, for part-time employees, the cost is remarkably low. Many of us (I include myself) have been reluctant to take on the cost and bureaucratic burden of the IMSS social insurance system for our part-time employees. In my case I have a full-time employee and have been engaged with IMSS for many years, with no hassle.
There are two aspects to this lecture: the moral issue of benefitting from the local labor force and economy without contributing more than the low wages we pay; AND the fact that there is now a local enterprise called IMSS ASsist that takes care of educating you and your employee about the benefits of IMSS, as well as the process of enrolling, , showing you in advance what your cost will be, and getting the paperwork, filing, and payments done so that you have no ongoing hassle. IMSS Assists has been working on this project since last fall and have successfully registered hundreds of domestic workers and their employers into this mandatory system.
All of us are already obligated for the costs that pertain to the end of an employee’s time with us; for most people the hassle and cost of adding this (now required) benefit is extremely modest. The benefits to employees who have no medical or disability insurance or retirement benefits cannot be overstated. An additional benefit to employers is freedom from financial responsibility if an employee is injured – both medical care and disability are generally available under IMSS.
It seems to me that making this kind of (usually) small financial gesture toward the people we depend on is a kind of moral – not to mention legal – imperative.
Give Jessica or Marlloly a call or write to them at IMSS.ASSIST.SMA@GMAIL.COM. They make the process easy, the cost is low, and it’s the right thing to do for your employees.
