Picture: Flickr Creative Commons/Juan Manuel Robledo

A Mexican association Centre for Labour Action and Studies (Cereal) recently released a report which sheds light on the working conditions in the electronics industry in Mexico within the context of the recent Labour Law reform.

According to Cereal, the Labour Law reform promulgated in 2012, has failed to improve the situation of workers in Mexico. Since the amendment came into effect, fewer jobs have been created than expected; furthermore, the majority of the new jobs are temporary in nature. Workers on temporary contracts continue to face difficulties in accessing health care and education. Also, the minimum wage remains low. In fact, the actual purchasing power of the minimum wage is 77 per cent lower today than 10 years ago. As such, many workers who earn the minimum wage are struggling to sustain even the most basic standard of living for themselves and their families.

For the report, Cereal collected testimonies from workers in Guadalajara, with the inclusion of some cases from the northern cities of Mexicali and Reynosa. The workers interviewed were employed by companies such as IBM, Jabil, Foxconn and Microsoft.

According to Cereal, there is a high risk of labour rights violations within the electronics industry in Mexico. These include for example pay that is below the living wage, lack of employment contracts, excessive working hours and restrictions on freedom of association. Some workers told Cereal, that they had been forced to take unpaid leave or to take their annual leave at times when there was no work for them. The report also includes one case of sexual harassment at a Microsoft factory (a former Nokia factory). Cereal states that the labour rights violations portrayed in the report are common in the electronics industry in Mexico.

Mexico, with more than 800 factories specializing in assembling and manufacturing electronic consumer products, has been an attractive destination for international brand name companies. Mexico's low production costs and availability of cheap labour have made it even more appealing.

Although 3.5 per cent of the world's electronic devices are assembled and manufactured in Mexico, and more than 600,000 people work in the industry, there is little focus on design and product development. Cereal believes that this contributes to a range of labour rights problems described in the report.

Previously, Finnwatch has published a report on freedom of association in Mexico. In the report, Finnwatch criticised a common practice of undemocratic trade unions and dubious collective agreements, which often have clauses prohibiting workers from collective bargaining and hindering the freedom of assembly drastically.

Tämä teos, jonka tekijä on Finnwatch, on lisensoitu Creative Commons Nimeä-EiKaupallinen-EiMuutoksia 4.0 Kansainvälinen -lisenssillä.