Client Alert

COVID19

On July 27th, 2020, the Federal Government published the criteria that establishes the mechanism on the return to normal economic activities of “vulnerable employees”. As a consequence, employers are obliged to implement a diagnosis and registry of the diseases and existing conditions by their workers, in order to comply with the sanitary measures imposed by the authority and that, in the event of a sanitary inspection, not held responsible and condemned to any sanction.

After the Agreement by which the suspension of non-essential activities was established and in which was also specified that the return to activities should be made gradually, orderly and staged, and by the Agreements published on May 14th and 15th, 2020, in the Federal Official Gazette, it was specified that said activities must implement protocols, training of personnel for safety in the work environment, readjustment of spaces, among others in order to return to work. Likewise, specific rules are established for the construction, mining and manufacturing of transport equipment industry in order for them to start operating on June 1st, 2020.

Given the global pandemic caused by SARS-CoV2 virus (COVID-19), on March 31th, 2020, an executive order was published in the Federal Official Gazette which ordered the immediate suspension of non-essential activities and it was also established that the reopening of activities must be done in a gradual, orderly and in various stages way, in consequence on May 14th, 2020, the Ministry of Health issued an Agreement through which the different stages for the reincorporation of activities are established, as well as the traffic light system which through colors, will indicate the situation of the different municipalities throughout the country to establish their return to economic and public activities, as well as in closed spaces and school activities.

On April 21st, 2020, the “Executive order amending the similar order establishing extraordinary actions to address the health emergency” was published, in which, derived from the technical analysis carried out by the Scientific Advisory Group to respond to the emergency and after the approval of the General Health Council, it is ordered that the suspension of non-essential activities, previously decreed, must continue until May 30th, 2020, however, the municipalities that present low or no transmission of COVID-19 may stop implementing such measures from May 18th, 2020.

Since the "Agreement establishing extraordinary actions to attend the health emergency generated by the SARS-CoV2 virus", published in the Federal Official Gazette on March 31st, 2020, which orders the suspension of non-essential activities, The Ministry of Labor and Social Security in coordination with the Ministry of Health, is carrying out activities to verify the compliance of the sanitary measures it ordered.

Due to the sanitary emergency caused by the COVID-19 epidemic, the Federal Economic Competition Commission (“COFECE” for its acronym in Spanish), expressing its awareness of its effects on the markets, in order to support that the supply chains are not interrupted, or the artificial restriction of output or price hikes of goods or services, on March 27 and 30 it published two communications.