The Senate of Mexico approved this Wednesday a presidential proposal that reduces the legal workweek from 48 to 40 hours, overcoming resistance from unions and the opposition with a reformulated version of a previous proposal.
The initiative was approved unanimously with 121 votes and now moves to the Chamber of Deputies for a final debate.
After years of discussions between Congress and the private sector, President Claudia Sheinbaum formally presented in December a bill to gradually implement the 40-hour workweek.
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The proposal aims to reduce the workweek by two hours per year until 2030 for about 13.4 million workers.
Opposition lawmakers and union leaders deemed the proposal weakened, arguing that it leaves loopholes that will not result in a substantial reduction of the weekly working hours.
If approved, the labor reform would take effect on May 1, with the first two-hour reduction to be implemented in January 2027.
Mexico leads the OECD ranking for the longest working hours, with 2,226 hours per person annually. The country also has the lowest labor productivity and the lowest wages among the 38 member states.
