Without a doubt, one of the elements that we are most happy to receive in the Christmas season is the bonus, since it helps to solve some of the extra expenses that are generated during the holidays. Currently it is a mandatory labor benefit in Mexico, but do you know the history of the Christmas bonus?
This custom has its origin in Rome, when the strenae, an exchange of gifts that took place on January 1. This custom also gives rise to the idea that in the winter holidays it should be released as a sign of good omen. There were various festivals in which these gifts were made.
With the arrival of Christianity, the custom declined, since gifts to rulers had degenerated into abusive taxes or popular waste. Thanks to the denunciations of the clerics, it is known that there were customs such as setting tables with delicacies at the beginning of each year.
Although the New Year’s bonus partially disappeared, it became a custom at baptism parties, which today is known as bolo. This custom arose in the 6th century and later spread again to the Christmas and Easter holidays.
History of the Christmas bonus: charitable origin
Since medieval times, charity became a Christmas custom. Emulating the ancient Roman processions that offered gifts to the Sabine king, the poorest workers solicited charity from door to door.
This Christian custom also reached Mexico after the Conquest, however, it had a properly evangelizing and missionary work.
In 1587 the superior of the convent of San Agustín de Acolman, Fray Diego de Soria, obtained a permit from Pope Sixtus V that authorized in New Spain the celebration of masses called “aguinaldo” from December 16 to 24. In these masses, passages with Christmas scenes were interspersed and to make them more attractive and entertaining, sparklers, rockets and Christmas carols were added.” Mentions Rafael Sánchez Domingo from the University of Burgos.
The bonus was not an amount of money that was delivered, but packages of sweets or food that were given to the faithful in the inns. Over time, the gift evolved into an economic bonus that was optionally given to the workers. Likewise, it was kept as a gift, mainly to children, during the holidays.
With the enactment of the Constitution of 1917, the first to establish social guarantees in the world, progress was made in the rights of workers, guaranteeing minimum wages and reducing working hours. This functioned as the basis for acquiring new labor rights in the future, such as the mandatory bonus, which was established in Mexico in 1970 in the Federal Labor Law, a document decreed in its first version by President Plutarco Elías Calles in 1927.
It should be noted that the first nation to establish a Christmas bonus as a law was Italy, decreed in 1937 for collective labor contracts and generalized in 1960. The new law not only applied to Christian nations, it was also established by non-Christian or secularized nations ; the latter was the case in the USSR, which applied the incentive in 1965.
The bonus in the Federal Labor Law
In Article 87 of said law, it is established that the worker must receive his Christmas bonus no later than December 20 of each year. The minimum amount to be received must be 15 days of salary per year. If you have been in a job for less than a year, you will receive the proportional part. The superior bonuses are considered benefits superior to the law and depend on the established contract, written or agreed, between the worker and his employer.
Workers will be entitled to an annual Christmas bonus that must be paid before December 20, equivalent to at least fifteen days’ salary. Those who have not completed the year of service, regardless of whether or not they are working on the date of liquidation of the Christmas bonus, will have the right to be paid the proportional part of it, according to the time they have worked, whatever it may be. .”Article 87 of the Federal Labor Law.
By Rodrigo Osegueda
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