In Mexico there are companies dedicated to creating databases containing the names of those workers who have sued their employers, These are firms that provide information services to other businesses or to recruiting offices, an activity that may be illegal if you have not given your consent, or if you are denied a job for appearing on these lists.
The so-called “labor bureau” is not a government institution, nor is it a society recognized in Mexican regulations as the Credit bureau, In reality, it is information -many times public- that is compiled by firms that offer labor and judicial background investigation services.
Is the labor bureau legal?
It all depends on how and for what the information is acquired: If at any time you sued the company you worked for, your name will surely appear in those databases. That information is public.
The Conciliation and Arbitration Boards, which are already disappearing to make way for Labor Courts in each of the country’s states, issue a bulletin listing the demands that both employers and workers promote in this matter.
These data, being public, can be acquired and gathered in lists, which does not violate any law. Nevertheless, what is illegal is that this information is transmitted to third parties without your consent.
In turn, it is also illegal, because it is about discrimination, if a company denies you employment for this reason, that is, because it found out that you once sued your employer, since the Federal Labor Law, in its article 133, section IX, prohibits this type of indices or “black lists”.
How to avoid discrimination?
Suing a company for unjustified dismissal, or for some other violation of the law, is not bad, since going to court is a right that all Mexicans have, it is the fundamental right to effective judicial protection.
However, although in Mexico the Constitution and labor regulations establish that discrimination is prohibited, we must be realistic, unfortunately many companies have an internal policy not to hire employees who have previously filed a lawsuit against their employer.
In these cases, the consortium to which you are requesting work is obliged to request your consent to conduct an investigation of your background, Therefore, they must give you a document in which you -expressly- accept that your data will be searched in the labor bulletins.
Obviously, you can refuse, and if by doing so the firm tells you that you can no longer continue with the recruitment process, this business would be discriminating against you.
Given this, the best thing to do is that you retire, because a consortium that has this type of policy actually not a good place to work since surely in relations with its employees it also transgresses the law in other ways.
Additionally, you can denounce the company before the National Council to Prevent Discrimination (Conapred), specifically -if that is your wish- you must file a complaint with this institution for discriminatory acts.
On the other hand, it is also illegal if the business in which you are applying for a vacancy obtains, without telling you and without your consent, the information on your background from the time it has contracted the “labor bureau” service.
In the latter case it is a violation of the Federal Law on Protection of Personal Data Held by Private Parties, that both the company that investigates you and the one that owns the databases and provides the information to the first would be committing. This can be reported to the Institute or Council for Transparency, Access to Information and Protection of Personal Data of your federal entity.
How do I know if I am on a ‘list’ of the Labor Bureau?
There are several firms that are called “labor bureau” on the internet or that have background investigation services in this matter, that is, it is not only a private institution that has this type of data, as is the case with the Credit Bureau in terms of financial information.
Therefore, if you have already sued one of your employers, it is not always easy to know which of these consortiums has your information.
Anyway, If you manage to identify the company whose lists you think your name appears on, We reiterate, because at some point you sued your employer, you can request it to exercise your rights of Access, Rectification, Cancellation and Opposition (ARCO).
To do this, you must first read their Privacy Notice so that you can send, to the address or email that this document must contain, a request in which you ask if your name and other data appear in their lists (Access).
If the answer is affirmative, you must also request their Cancellation together with the Opposition to their treatment. The Cancellation implies that the firm that owns your information must completely eliminate it from its files or records, while the Opposition is that all types of processing of your personal data end.
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surya palaces Journalist and lawyer, specialist in legal analysis and human rights. She has been a reporter, radio host and editor.