Standing for hours on end – this is not uncommon in some jobs in Mexico. But that should change. Mexico gets a “chair law”. Employees are then entitled to a chair at their workplace.
A reform of the labor law will give working people in Mexico the right to a chair at work in the future. Until now, employees in some industries in the country, such as cashiers at a supermarket checkout, often have to stand for hours.
That should change with the passed “chair law”. The regulation stipulates that in the future there must be enough seating “for all employees in the service sector, in trade and in similar workplaces” to be able to take “regular rest breaks”. The law also states that employers must provide their employees with chairs with backrests.
Mexican MP Patricia Mercado sees the reform as strengthening the right to acceptable working conditions. “The most important thing is: Nobody can make it a condition of employment that you have to stand the whole working day,” she wrote on the short message service X. The law expressly states that employers may not force their employees to stand all day or prohibiting them from sitting down regularly.
Employers must implement the reform by mid-June
In addition to the right to a chair, the new law also reforms other points of labor law. Among other things, the new law prohibits employers from exercising control over unions. Employees are given the right to have their position heard should they face disciplinary action, such as suspension. According to the law, in the future this may last a maximum of eight days.
The corresponding reform of the labor law was published in the Official Gazette. Employers now have six months to adapt their internal regulations and premises to the new regulations – i.e. until mid-June next year.
