Employment Law - Mandatory Weekly Rest Days

Written By: Pablo Sáenz

Cacheaux Cavazos & Newton

Mexico's Federal Labor Law provides a series of rights that employees are entitled to that allow them to work under optimal conditions resulting in greater productivity and better performance of their job responsibilities. Among such rights is the right to receive a day of rest on at least a weekly basis. The purpose of the weekly rest day is to protect the health and physical and mental integrity employees. Such is intended to allow employees to reenergize themselves after the work week, and to provide them with time to rest and to spend time with their families. The Federal Labor Law establishes that for each six days of work, an employee will be entitled to at least one day of rest, with payment of full salary and benefits. The law also establishes that jobs requiring continuous labor, employees and employers must mutually agree on the days which employees will take e their weekly rest day. Nevertheless, they must try to designate Sundays for taking the weekly rest day. Today, it is common practice for non-union employees and employers to vary the scheduling of work hours during the work week, provided such schedule does not exceed the maximum allowed by law, in order to allow employees to take both Saturdays and Sundays off. Even so,, certain employment activities must, due to their nature, be performed on a Sundays, and those employees who are required towork on Sundays and rest on another day of the week shall receive an additional bonus of at least 25% of their regular salary. This bonus, which is referred to as the "Sunday bonus", takes into account that Sunday is normally given as a rest day, as it is often the day an employee can spend time with his/her family; this is the reason why an employee who works on Sundays receives the bonus payment, irrespective of the fact that he/she is given another day of the week to rest. It is important to note that when an employee does not work every day of the work week, or when he/she provides services to several employers on the same day or within the same week, such employee will be entitled to his/her proportional share of the salary for days of rest, calculated based on the corresponding salary for the days on which the employee worked or the salary received from each employer. The Federal Labor Law establishes that employees are not obligated to render services on their days of rest. However, if such work is necessary, the employer must then pay the employee (notwithstanding the salary corresponding for the day of rest salary for the services rendered. In the event that the weekly day of rest of the employee falls on a Sunday and he/she works on such day, in addition to payment of the salary corresponding to the day of rest, he/she must be paid double his/her salary for the services rendered. In such case, the employer is not required to make additional payment of the aforementioned Sunday bonus equivalent to 25% of the salary for an ordinary day of work.

If the employer does not comply with the provisions set forth in the Law, labor authorities may order the employer to pay for all of those days of work that were not paid to its employees, or to pay the full salaries that were not correctly paid to the employees. In addition, during company visits customarily made by the Department of Labor and Welfare, said Department may impose a larger fine on companies, ranging from 50 to 250 times the minimum general salary for each employee affected, in the event that the employees of the company do not receive at least one rest day per week with payment of full salary and benefits if such officials determine the employer has not met applicable rest day payment requirements.

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