Martha Martínez and Claudia Salazar / Reform Agency
Wednesday, April 12, 2023 | 18:41
Mexico City.- Unanimously, the Chamber of Deputies approved increasing the catalog of illnesses and work disabilities.
With 427 votes in favor, the Plenary endorsed modifications to articles 513, 514 and 515 of the Federal Labor Law with the aim of incorporating conditions such as Covid-19 infections and mental disorders into the list and increasing the types of cancers considered to be work-related.
The reform proposed by the federal Executive seeks to update the catalog of occupational diseases and conditions in accordance with the new International Classification of Diseases of the World Health Organization (WHO), in force since January 2022.
The project increases from 161 to 194 the conditions contained in the Occupational Illnesses Table, increases the types of work-related cancer from four to 30, and considers care for sudden abortions and conditions such as infertility and endometriosis.
In addition, it incorporates into the law infectious and parasitic pathologies, such as Covid-19, as well as mental disorders, including anxiety, severe stress, depression and organic sleep disorders, as they are conditions that have increased worldwide.
The modifications also include 115 new types of injuries, which increases the list of permanent disabilities from 409 to 524.
When arguing the opinion, the PAN Leticia Zepeda indicated that the reform corrects five decades of delay, since the table of labor illnesses has not been updated since 1970.
He stressed that the group of infectious and parasitic diseases increased from 21 to 41, while the group of diseases that increased the most were types of cancer of occupational origin.
The PAN member thanked that the modifications included the proposal that she presented eight months ago, to consider endometriosis among the disabling diseases due to all the conditions that it causes in women.
He explained that according to the WHO, this is an incurable chronic disease that, in Mexico, has an average diagnosis of 9 years and, according to official statistics, affects one in 10 women.
The Morenista Manuel de Jesús Baldenebro, president of the Labor Commission, indicated that according to the WHO, more than half a million deaths occur in the workplace and due to professional exposure to dangerous substances in the world.
In Mexico, he added, in 2018 the IMSS reported 551 thousand work risks. A year later, he said, 553 thousand were registered, in 2020 a total of 490 thousand and in 2021 half a million.
“Which means that, on average, 523,000 work risks occur per year, which consist of work accidents, commuting accidents and occupational diseases,” he warned.
Baldenebro assured that approving this reform underpins the series of labor reforms that have been approved in this Administration, among which he mentioned those related to outsourcing and teleworking, the one that incorporates domestic workers into the IMSS Law and the one that increases the holidays.
