Mexican Senate supports forty-hour work week in first vote

(Patria)- The Mexican Senate on Wednesday approved a presidential proposal to reduce the legal work week from 48 to 40 hours, overcoming resistance from both unions and the opposition with a revised version of the previously proposed reform, Reuters reported.

The initiative was unanimously approved in general terms with 121 votes, and it now moves to the lower house of Congress for final debate.

After years of wrangling between Congress and the private sector, President Claudia Sheinbaum formally presented the law for the gradual implementation of the forty-hour work week in December.

The proposal aims to reduce the work week by two hours annually by 2030 for approximately 13.4 million workers.

Opposition lawmakers and union leaders called it a watered-down proposal, arguing that it leaves loopholes that would not significantly reduce the weekly workload.

If the law is passed, the reform would take effect on May 1, with the first two-hour reduction in working hours to be applied in January 2027.

Mexico leads the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) rankings for the longest working hours, with 2,226 hours per person annually.
Mexico also has the lowest labor productivity and the lowest wages among its 38 member states.