As Mexico Reopens, Authorization Requirements Are Clarified

This is a summary of an article published on June 1 by Roberto Arena Reyes, Retana Daniel Aranda, and Andres Alvarez– published by Folley & Lardner LLP.

• On May 29 the Mexican Government published an executive order setting forth the country’s strategic and guidelines to resume economic activities in a safe, responsible and staggered manner.

• Companies qualified as essential and that obtained authorization of their health and safety measures, will be able to resume operations as of June 1, 2020

• Companies performing essential activities but that do not have yet an authorization; will be able to resume operations as early as they perform an online self-assessment at a platform provided by the government.

• The platform contains reference guides for specific industries such as aerospace, automotive, construction, hospitality, cinema theaters, etc.

• Companies need to consider the four pillars of the strategy provided by the Mexican government when restarting activities:

1. Type of activities performed by the company (i.e., essential or not);

2. Size of the workplace (i.e., micro, small, medium and large), based on the number of employees attending such workplace;

3. Status of the sanitary alert as communicated by the Mexican government through the stoplight system where the workplace is located:

• Green light - activities can be resumed without restrictions

• Yellow light - activities can be resumed subject to certain light restrictions

• Orange light - non-essential activities can be resumed subject to substantial restrictions

• Red light - only essential activities may take place subject to the restrictions in place; and

4. Nature of the activities undertaken in the workplace (i.e., manufacturing space, office space, open space, reception area, etc.), taking into consideration social distancing, vulnerable population, caretakers, and other health and safety guidelines communicated by the government.

• There are 15 mandatory safety measures covering an array of requirements, including:

• Identification of vulnerable population

• Taking body temperature upon entrance and exit of employees to the workspace

• Control guidelines for access of visitors, vendors, and suppliers

• guidelines on how to act in case an employee is COVID-19 symptomatic to protect the employee, co-workers, family, etc

For a complete list of the mandatory safety measures, please read the complete article as per link above.

Summary in free format provided by Mario Winterstein, IBDGi, on June 2, 2020