Mexico City /
Mexico will celebrate in 2024 the largest electoral process it has ever had, which entails not only the renewal of the presidency, governorships and congresses, but also the entry into force of ‘extra’ non-working days.
There are eight days of mandatory rest, popularly known as ‘holidays‘, that Federal Labor Law (LFT) has contemplated in his article 74 for more than thirty years. It was in 1987 with the then president Miguel de la Madrid that a ninth clause was added that considers lElectoral periods as a reason for work holidays.
And although this section is found on the pages of the LFT, it is the General Law of Electoral Institutions and Procedures which determines which holidays will apply during ordinary election periods, such as those that will occur in 2024.
According to article 22 of the Procedures Law, it will be considered as non-working throughout the Mexican Republic the day they are celebrated the ordinary elections to renew federal deputies, senators and the Presidency of the Republic. This process must be carried out in the first sunday in june of the corresponding year.
It is because of that June 2, 2024 will be a mandatory day of rest in all the country. Which implies that those workers whose services are requested on that date will have the right to receive a double extra salary to what they normally receive daily, according to article 75 of the LFT.
And what happens in the locals?
In addition to the federal elections, in 2024 the National Electoral Institute (INE) will organize elections in nine states of the Republic (including Mexico City (CDMX)) to renew their governorships and, in some cases, municipal presidencies and local congresses.
However, what happens when a local election does not coincide with the federal ones, as happened in 2023 with the renewal of the government of the State of Mexico (Edomex) and Coahuila, or the election for mayors of CDMX in 2021 ?
The answer is found in the second section of article 25, also of the Electoral Procedures Law., which stipulates that the Ordinary local elections are also a reason for work holidays in the respective entity.
Like federal processes, these elections must be held on the first Sunday in June of the corresponding year; while the positions applicable to this regulation are “governors, members of local legislatures, members of the City Councils in the states of the Republic, Head of Government, deputies to the Legislative Assembly and heads of the political-administrative bodies of the demarcations. ” from the Mexican capital.
New holiday or is it going to be repeated?
In February 2014, the political-electoral reform that ‘cuts’ the six-year term of Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) and, therefore, will take place during the inauguration of his eventual successor from December 1 to October 1.
It should be remembered that the LFT considers the day on which the Federal Executive Power is transferred as a work holiday. Hence October 1, 2024 will be the ‘new’ day of mandatory rest, although in reality it replaces the one that the law previously attributed to December 1 of each change of six-year terms.
The other mandatory rest days are:
- January 1st
- May 1st
- 16 of September
- December 25th
- First Monday of February in commemoration of February 5
- Third Monday of November in commemoration of November 20
- Third Monday of March in commemoration of March 21
These last three dates were the result of the reform published in the DOF in 2006. Deputies Francisco Xavier López and Sergio Álvarez Mata, from the PAN, presented it to the plenary session in 2005 with the purpose of “promote national tourism, through the so-called long weekends”.
