The company’s Profits Sharing with the Employees (PTU) has become a union mechanism to recruit affiliates or sympathizers, while also serving as leverage to pressure companies through strike threats
In May companies must fulfill the obligation to pay the workers’ share of profits generated during the previous fiscal year, which has been used by union leaders to “make workers believe that they can obtain significant amounts, without actually considering whether the company is in a position to meet that obligation”, explained the managing partner of Sales Boyoli, Jorge Sales.
Such situation, explained the labor expert, “started with the 2019 labor reform and the later reform on outsourcing in 2021, resulting from the absence of PTU payments or their reduced amounts, which has become a key cause for unions”.
In that same sense, Óscar de la Vega from D&M Law firm stated that “the 2021 outsourcing reform generated a significant increase in the companies’ profits sharing with the employees, sometimes in a disproportionate manner as compared with the creation of value by the workers, thus, article 127 of the Federal Labor Law was amended, establishing various caps to the payment of profits sharing, among others, three months of salary or the average worker’s share over the past three years of employment”.
However, he said, some unions have used strike threats to pressure companies into ignoring these legal caps, notwithstanding that Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled that the caps set forth in Article 127 were constitutional.
Faced with this scenario, companies have adopted a different approach, particularly in businesses where no profits are being made, “in many cases, during the four years since the amendment, they have negotiated bonds instead of profits sharing with the unions, to maintain labor harmony”.
Data from the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare (STPS) refer that, in 2020, the number of companies who paid PTU was 89,038; reaching 180,870 in 2023, benefiting 13.9 million workers.
In terms of amounts, the agency has informed that workers, in 2020, received an average of 6,999 MXN; 11,557 in 2021; in 2022, workers obtained 14,024 pesos, and in 2023 it reached 14,748.
It shall be noted that, during this month, the agency performs special inspections to identify those companies that have not fulfilled the obligation to pay PTU to their employees.
In this sense, Sales Boyoli stated that some actions can be taken to avoid this situation, such as:
- Involving the union from the start of the PTU process.
- Informing employees through their financial and HR areas, indicating any additional costs that prevented PTU sharing (loans, investments, quality, equipment, etc…), ensuring proper awareness.
- In workplaces with an active union life, designing a strategy jointly with the general secretary. The union may help to contain any effects.
- Educating on the concept of PTU—how it is determined, what elements affect its calculation, how it is structured, and how to read the summary sheet, among other aspects.
