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Depending on the number of workers, companies must comply with mitigation policies.
To verify compliance, the STPS conducts ordinary or extraordinary inspections.
The Secretary of Labor and Social Welfare (STPS) through NOM-035 urges all work centers or companies established in Mexico to respect and comply with the basic and necessary conditions regarding the safety and mental health of employees. The way in which the institution verifies its compliance is through extraordinary inspections, and through those notifiedwhich on many occasions are driven by complaints from the workers themselves, said Ricardo Pastrana, partner and head of the labor area of Chougen Abogados de Mexico.
On October 23, 2018, STPS, in exercise of its normalization powers, published in the Official Gazette of the Federation (DOF), the Official Mexican Standard NOM-035, which aims to establish the elements to identify, analyze and prevent psychosocial risk factorsl, as well as promoting a favorable organizational environment in the workplace.
According to Pastrana, “the NOM-035 is designed to understand the psychosocial trauma of any type of event for workers: it does not distinguish what type of workers it is directed towards, therefore it covers all workers.”
Said Standard is born from different national and international agreements and regulations to eradicate labor injustices and improve competitiveness and trade in the country.
Since 2013, the International Labor Organization (ILO) warned about the increase in emerging risks of a psychosocial natureand in 2016, announced that the problem was a global issue that affected all workplaces in developing and developed countries.
In the Mexican country, the NOM-035 appeared as a lifeline to the labor situation. According to the “Index for a better life” carried out by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), 29 percent of workers in the country have long working hours and one of the highest in the world.
Likewise, there are few hours for recreational activities, rest and family life. And it is that in Mexico only 6 days of vacation are granted per year, making it the country with the fewest vacations in the world, indicates information from the OECD, that number is very distant from the days recommended by the International Labor Organization (ILO) that it’s 18 days.
Mexico ranks fourth for the longest average extension of work – out of 36 member countries –, because the Mexican worker spends around 2,148 hours a year to carry out their work activities.
The situation is aggravated when the average of all OECD countries is observed, which is only 1,726 hours per year, that is, 20 percent less than the Mexican working day.
These data are enough to understand that Mexican workers are under stress and do not have a balance between their personal and professional lives.
In Mexico, 100 percent of workers have levels of work stress and 60 percent are at very high levels, with consequences that are reflected at the physiological level, indicates a study carried out by the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).
The STPS inspects companies to verify compliance with NOM-035; employee safety and mental health
According to what was published in the DOF, NOM-035 is mandatory for all work centers and requires that they establish policies to mitigate psychosocial risk and workplace violence, and that promote a healthy organizational environment; evaluations and referrals to medical services when employees have experienced a traumatic event; they must have an anonymous mailbox for suggestions and complaints; disseminate educational information about psychosocial risk factors and the alterations they can generate in their health, and carry out medical examinations for those who have been diagnosed with a psychosocial disorder.
As of October 23, 2019, work centers must be prepared with the requirements of the STPS to identify compliance with NOM-035, it should be noted that companies are conditioned to comply with them according to the number of workers who are working (1 to 15, 16 to 50 and 51 or more).
A day like any other, STPS inspectors or accredited and approved inspection units can arrive at the door of the workplace.
According Ricardo Pastrana, partner and head of the labor area of Chougen Abogados de Mexico, when the inspection is of an extraordinary nature, the Secretariat does not have the obligation to notify you that it is going to review you and if there is a refusal to review, the work center will be involved in a breach, and therefore, will be subject to a sanctioning process.
“They have the power to even conduct random private interrogations of workers, asking them if they know the NOM-035, if they have been followed up with their logs, if any of them have suffered any stress due to assault or trauma and have any post-traumatic effects derived from an accident at work, derived from an assault inside the center of work, derived from excessive workload, (…) and if they know that if their employer is giving them the correct follow-up, in case yes and if the worker has a post-traumatic issue, they are following up on their treatment ”, explained Pastrana.
However, if it complies, the Accredited and Approved Inspection Unit may issue the Compliance Opinion after the validation process: documentary, interviews and samples in the workplace. This lasts for 2 years.
If the STPS announces its inspection, it is possibly following up on a complaint by its workers, said the labor lawyer.
Workers can report anonymously to the STPS only taking the data of the worker, the company, the employer and address. This is how they can schedule an open or “ordinary” visit to the companies and in the case of “non-compliance” fines are applied – stipulated in the Federal Labor Law -, since they are considered to incur in omissions that represent a risk to the health, integrity or life safety of its employees.