in 2024 November 18, Budapest, Hungary: Wolt delivery service workers wait at a traffic light in the city center.

PHOTO: Scanpix

With a unanimous yes vote, Mexico’s lower house has approved one of the most aggressive labor reform bills in the world. It gives additional benefits to riders and couriers who work for apps that offer delivery services like Uber, Just Eat, Amazon Prime and DiDi.

Improved rights for Mexican delivery workers

The bill states that all gig workers who earn the minimum wage (7,468 pesos, or around €353) must be considered employees and receive all legal benefits, regardless of the amount of time worked. This means full cover of social security benefits, including health services, work risk insurance, and housing credits.

Those who work more than 288 hours a year will also be able to partake in company profit-sharing schemes. Riders and couriers who earn less than minimum wage will be considered self-employed and won’t receive all the same benefits as those considered employees, but they will at least have accident insurance.

Crucially, the bill also entitles app workers to form unions and engage in collective bargaining to change their working conditions, which would be enforceable by government authorities. Companies may be fined as punishment for defiance of this law.

Mexico is not the first country to seek improved rights for app workers. Spain passed the “Riders Law” in 2021, and in 2022 Chile entitled gig workers to social security, damages insurance and collective bargaining.

President of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, proposed the bill and her administration has said there will be no tax increase for workers as a result of the changes. All the affected companies have agreed to pay social security contributions to ensure minimal impact on workers’ wages.

Improved rights for courier and driver app workers was one of 100 promises that Sheinbaum made at her inauguration as President on October 1st 2024. Riders and couriers are often exploited and obliged to work in precarious conditions, with little protection required from their employers. Should Mexico’s Congress pass the bill, it would be a major step forward and could set a precedent for greater rights for delivery app workers worldwide.

- With the help from Patrick Conroy ir Silvija Aksiutinaitė

The next steps in passing the bill

The bill must now be approved by the Senate, where the ruling party also has a large majority, making a positive outcome seem likely. Mexico’s Congress has already approved several constitutional changes proposed by previous President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador – some progressive, like a constitutional reform that guarantees increases to the country’s minimum wage, and others more controversial, like a judiciary reform.

While news of the bill’s approval would be welcomed by app workers, Alianza in Mexico, an association of digital platforms that represents the likes of Uber and Amazon Prime, says that many topics of the bill need further analysis. It has called on Congress to continue dialogue on the proposal, with representatives of all relevant parties involved: workers, digital platforms, as well as lawmakers and the government. The group has also requested greater clarity on changes to taxes and social security guidelines.

According to recent data, approximately 57% of Mexico's workforce is employed in the informal sector, indicating a significant challenge in the labor market.

PHOTO: Depositphotos

Labor force participation, % of the population of the same age group, aged 25-64 in 2022

SOURCE: OECD

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