In recent months a figure in Mexico has sounded strongly: 40 hours. In many parts of the planet it is a standard to which the nation aspires in labor key thus reducing the weekly workday. There are the First experiments and tests around the world To define if it is plausible to reduce it even to four days a week. Also those who go to the counter, with Elon Musk at the head and Your 120 hours a week. Mexico now debates a new proposal: rest more, but at work.
Duplicate the break. In the middle of the national debate for the reduction of the working day at 40 hours a weekthe parliamentary group of Morena has presented a New initiative In the most creative Senate. One that also aims to improve working conditions in Mexico, but differently.
The senator Julieta Ramírez Padilla proposed on March 18 a reform to article 63 of the Federal Labor Law for Duplicate the minimum rest period Within the working day, going from the current 30 minutes one hour.
The proposal. Framed within the progressive labor agenda of the party in power, it responds to the need to adapt the current regulations (intact for more than half a century) to the physical, mental and social demands of the contemporary Mexican workforce, recognizing that time, not only as a time to eat food or drinks, but as an indispensable condition for the exercise of decent and healthy work.
A more “human” pause. In The documentit is emphasized that pauses during working hours are fundamental to prevent exhaustion and reduce stress generated by productive activity. The International Labor Organization (ILO) support this vision Highlighting that breaks are essential to preserve the health of the worker.
The senator emphasizes that, within the member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Mexico It stands out negatively for the high number of working hours compared to low salary levels, which implies that free time has a “higher cost” For Mexican workers.
International examples. Morena’s approach also relies on examples that reflect a trend Towards work models more balanced. In Portugal and in New York, for example, laws establish at least one rest within the day. In Finland, the legal framework grants an hour of pause for every six hours of work, and in Italy there are provisions that give fifteen minutes for every two continuous hours in certain cases.
These measures seek not only the preservation of workers’ health, but also to promote more human, fair and productive environments. The Mexican proposal would thus align with a modern vision of work that considers the employee, not only as an economic agent, but as a person with rights, dignity and integral needs.
The (“slow”) legal framework. We said it at the beginning, the senator has also contextualized the proposal within a legal framework that has remained unaltered for more than a century (From the promulgation of the Mexican Constitution in 1917). The regulation of the working day in the Mexican Constitution has not been modified since then, and the Federal Labor Law has barely registered changes Significant in the last 50 years, despite the deep transformations that the world of work has experienced.
Currently, the chapter related to the working day contemplates eleven legal provisionsamong which are article 58, which defines the day as the time in which the worker “is available to the employer”; Article 59, which allows to agree on the distribution of hours “to facilitate breaks”; and article 61, which establishes a maximum day of eight day diurnal hours, seven night and seven and a half hours for the mixed day. Article 63, which is intended to modify, currently establishes a minimum of half an hour of rest in continuous days.
An ambitious agenda. It is the leg that is seen with the proposal to expand the work rest, which adds to a series of reforms that make up the large labor agenda promoted by Morena in 2025. According to El Economista figuresduring the first session of the LXVI Legislature there have been at least 68 initiatives to reform the Federal Labor Law.
Among the most prominent: the reduction of the working day to those 40 hours a week we commented, the increase in Aguinaldo 30 days and the creation of mourning permits. The reduction of the day, in particular, is a President’s priority Claudia Sheinbaum and has legislative support since November 2024, with an initiative signed by Deputies Napoleón Gómez Urrutia and Manuel Vázquez Arellano that contemplates a gradual implementation to ensure its economic viability.
The future. The truth is that, although the proposal of Senator Ramírez Padilla has gone to Senate commissions for analysis and eventual opinion, his legislative destiny is still uncertain. It will be necessary to achieve a consensus between different political, business and social actors to consolidate the necessary support.
In this way, the substantive approach represents an opportunity for rethink the structure of work in the nation from a perspective focused on human rights, health, equity and productive efficiency. The idea of duplicating the rest time within the working day not only responds to international standards, but also to a (growing) social demand due to more just, human and sustainable working conditions.
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