The multinational energy infrastructure Enerflex announced that initiated an investment arbitration against the Mexican State for an award that obliges the company to pay more than two billion pesos to a former worker, which he considers violates the USMCA and NAFTA, as well as other treaties.
In a statement, the Canadian company said that the Special Board Number Three of the Local Conciliation and Arbitration Board of Tabasco obliges its subsidiaries to pay two billion pesos as compensation to a former mid-level employee.
The company indicated that this act constitutes a “indirect expropriation” and arbitrary treatment by the Mexican State by demanding “extraordinary, unfair and without cause” compensation.
Enerflex, which has been operating in Mexico since 1997 with an accumulated investment of 400 million dollars, said that the conflict dates back to 2015, when a former employee filed a labor lawsuit against Exterran Energy Solutions LP; Exterran Energy de Mexico S. de RL de CV; Gas Conditioning of Mexico S. de RL, and various employees thereof.
As a result of this ruling, the Special Board ordered Gas Conditioning of México S. de RL to pay compensation to the former employee, based on a salary of $3,579.76 pesos (approx. US$205) per day, and acquitted the rest of the defendants. if. In compliance with the 2017 resolution, lThe company paid, and the former employee received $1,417,621.95 pesos (equivalent to approximately US$81,280) for constitutional compensation, lost wages and seniority bonus.
However, five years later -in 2022- the same Special Board issued a resolution restoring the claim against all the defendants and ordering them to pay the former employee more than 2 billion pesos (more than 120 million dollars) based on a daily salary of 21 thousand 735.24 dollars (more than 434 thousand pesos), that is, more than 120 times the amount of the original award.
“This is an absurd result, since the daily salary that the plaintiff received in his position as manager was 3,579.76 pesos, as recognized at the time by the Fifth District Court and the Collegiate Court on Criminal and Labor Matters. , both Courts based in Villahermosa, Tabasco”, added Enerflex.
The company considered that Mexico violated its international treaty commitmentsincluding that of granting foreign investments fair and equitable treatment established in Articles 1105 of NAFTA and 14.6 of T-MEC, “because the Board acted in a manifestly unfair, unreasonable, arbitrary, perverse manner, contrary to any legitimate expectation of treatment, in bad faith, without due process and in a manner that constitutes a denial of justice.”
It ensures that the execution of the award of 2,000 million pesos could cause an “indirect expropriation, which amounts to a fundamentally unfair and inequitable treatment.”
After said award, the subsidiaries of Enerflex filed a direct amparo, in March 2022, before the First Collegiate Circuit Court based in Villahermosa, Tabasco, and although they hope that the court will correct the error, there has been no resolution so far.
Meanwhile, Enerflex formally filed a request for arbitration against Mexico to request monetary compensation to compensate for the damages caused.
The Canadian company operates in 25 countries, including Mexico. In our country, it has installed more than 200 natural gas compressor units through contracts with Pemex and other private hydrocarbon producers.
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