This past April 10th, Mexico´s National Supreme Court issued a new jurisprudence, which overrules its past criteria of considering viable the annulment of termination agreements approved by the Conciliation and Arbitration Labor Boards.
In summary, this new criteria confirms the requirements contained in articles 123 of the Mexican Constitution, and 5th and 33 of the Federal Labor Law. It also sets the guidelines for the validity and effectiveness of termination agreements. The termination agreement must:
1. Be in writing.
2. Contain a detailed account of the facts, rights and obligations of the agreement.
3. Ratified before the Labor Board.
4. Approved by the Labor Board, who will evaluate and consent that the agreement does not imply a waiver of the workers rights.
If the aforementioned is properly fulfilled, this new criteria states that it will not consider viable the action of annulment, nor the request to review the facts and obligations of an agreement, when a worker alleges a supposed waiver of rights. This becomes very important because there are many advisors who encourage workers to sue the nullity of a termination agreement in order to obtain an undeserved profit.
This new jurisprudence expressly states that it does not exclude the possibility to sue the nullity of termination agreements which have not been properly ratified before the Labor Authority, because there is no previous ruling on its validity.
The new jurisprudence has been titled as LABOR TERMINATION AGREEMENT SANCTIONED BEFORE THE LABOR BOARD. THE REQUEST TO REVIEW THE CONTENTS OF THE AGREEMENT WHEN THE WORKER ALLEGES A WAIVER OF RIGHTS IS INADMISSIBLE.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.