MEXICO Law and Practice Contributed by: Mauricio Moreno Rey, Anahí Serrano, Erick Sastré and Karla Fajardo, Cannizzo, Ortiz y Asociados, S.C.
poration must be made before the Federal Centre for Labour Conciliation and Registration ( Centro Fed- eral de Conciliación y Registro Laboral , or CFCRL). Unions, as well as collective bargaining agreements and the agreements and regulations entered between employers and employees, must be registered before the CFCRL. A union registers itself by submitting sev - eral documents, including a copy of the minutes of the incorporation meeting, a list containing the names, telephone numbers, CURP numbers and addresses of its members, an authorised copy of the by-laws and an authorised copy of the minutes of the meeting in which the board of directors was appointed. Local and federal conciliation centres are authorised to carry out labour conciliations between employers and unions. Previously, this used to be the compe - tence of the local and federal conciliation and arbitra - tion boards. 6.3 Collective Bargaining Agreements Pursuant to the Federal Labour Law, a collective bar - gaining agreement is an agreement entered between one or more labour unions and one or more employ - ers, or one or more employers’ unions, to set forth the conditions under which work is to be performed at one or more companies or establishments. In order for a labour union to enter into a collective bargaining agreement with an employer, the labour union must first obtain “Evidence of Representation” ( Constancia de Representatividad ), which is issued by the Federal Centre for Labour Conciliation and Reg - istration. This requirement ensures the principles of representativeness in trade union organisations and provides certainty in the signing, registration, and fil - ing of collective bargaining agreements. Once the above is complied with, the collective bar - gaining agreement must be approved by the employ - ees, and the employer must not intervene in the con - sultation procedure. Once the employees approve the clauses of the col - lective bargaining agreement, it must be executed in writing, in three counterparts, failing which the agree - ment shall be null and void. One copy must be deliv - ered to each of the parties and the other copy must
be deposited with the CFCRL, who will verify that its content has been approved by the majority of employ - ees covered by such agreement. Collective bargaining agreements are effective from the date and time of presentation of the document, unless the parties have agreed on a different date. It should be noted that for the registration of an initial collective bargaining agreement or a revision agree - ment, the CFCRL verifies that its content has been approved through a personal, free and secret vote by the majority of the employees the agreement refers to. In this sense, one of the relevant effects of the reforms of 2019 referred to in 6.1 Unions is that employees are authorised to join a union, federation or confed - eration and to be consulted through personal, free, secret and direct voting for, among other things, the union to sign initial collective bargaining agreements, and to approve amendments and revisions to those collective bargaining agreements, as well as to legiti - mise existing collective bargaining agreements. It is important to note that the legitimisation of collective bargaining agreements is a commitment originally acquired under the US-Canada-Mexico Agreement (USMCA). On 1 May 2023, the deadline to legitimise collective bargaining agreements under the afore - mentioned arrangement elapsed. Consequently, any agreements that were not submitted by unions for the legitimisation procedure have been terminated in accordance with Mexican regulation. If an employer refuses to sign the agreement, its employees may exercise their right to strike or to extend or prolong the pre-strike period in order to continue negotiations and to submit the agreement to further consultation. Once the legitimisation period has elapsed, workers still retain the right to enter into collective bargaining agreements; however, they must now follow the pro - cess outlined per the new labour model, negotiating a new agreement which must be approved through the workers’ personal, free, direct, and secret voting.
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