Only 32 Labour Inspectors in Mexico City for Over 460,000 Companies

ByIvan Ortiz

This article by Ivan Ortiz originally appeared in the February 18, 2026 edition of La Razón.

“Many times the easiest way out we find as workers in the face of injustice is to resign, but I felt it was very unfair, so I requested a labor inspection, although, unfortunately, nothing came of it,” said Ángel Armando, a member of the national coordination of the National Front for the 40-hour workweek, with discouragement, given the shortage of labor inspectors in the capital.

In September 2021, during the Covid-19 lockdown, the employee suffered from burnout and depression due to harassment, precarious working conditions, and violations of labor rights at a sports company, whose name is omitted at the activist’s request.

“Our salaries were cut during the pandemic; mine was reduced by 30 percent. Several people left, and for a year I had to work 12-hour days. I suffered from burnout, my hair was falling out, I lost weight like never before, and my skin turned pale.”

“I had to move out of the apartment I was renting in Obrera because it was either that or my dog ​​and I wouldn’t eat. Work meetings would end and I would start crying because of everything they were saying to us. It caused me the worst depression of my life,” he told La Razón.

The final straw, he explained, was realizing that the company he worked for had registered him with the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) with a lower salary than he actually earned, one of the most common illegal practices in companies seeking to evade taxes.

Contributing to the IMSS without the full salary also implies losses for the worker’s pension, therefore, he requested a labor inspection, a mechanism to monitor and sanction non-compliance with labor obligations.

“Unfortunately, they told me to get lost, because they said the inspection couldn’t be done and nothing could be done against the employer. That frustrated me a lot,” said Ángel Armando.

STYFE promotes a bizarre idea called “self-compliance,” which allows employers to be exempt from inspections for a period of a year by filing perfunctory paperwork.

The head of the Ministry of Labor and Employment Promotion (STyFE), Inés González Nicolás, told this newspaper that there are currently 32 labor inspectors, who have to ensure that the 460,760 small, medium and large companies in the capital comply with the law.

“The Labor Secretariat has 32 inspectors and eight specialized lawyers who make the resolution at this time. Before December 25, we only had 32, and 10 of them stayed in the office to review the reports and resolve them positively or negatively.

“We are waiting for two more so that there will be 10 lawyers so that they can resolve each inspection that the inspectors carry out on site , at the company, at the workplaces,” the official said in an interview.

According to the Mexico City Secretary of Economic Development, Manola Zabalza Aldama, there were 460,760 economic units in the capital in 2025, mostly micro-enterprises. If these 32 inspectors wanted to review the working conditions of all these businesses, each one would have to monitor 14,399 companies this year.

In other words, each inspector would have to visit 48 companies daily, one every 10 minutes, without breaks during all 304 working days of this year to ensure compliance with the Federal Labor Law and protect workers in the capital.

“There’s no way to review every company in the city. We’re not surprised by the data, but it does sadden us that from the outside the discourse is in favor of workers and the 40-hour workweek, but from the inside, only the business class is benefiting from things like this,” commented Ángel Armando.

Meanwhile, González Nicolás commented that, commonly, workers are told that they are the main inspectors and that they should report anything.

The head of the STyFE acknowledged that the agency’s resources are not sufficient to address the problems in companies.

“We strongly believe in dialogue; fines are our last resort. What matters to us is that companies comply because that’s how workers’ rights are guaranteed,” the head of the Labor Secretariat said.

“We don’t have enough time to go to all the workplaces, that’s why we created self-compliance, but we also encourage workers to report when they are not receiving their rights,” said the local official.

One of the measures promoted by the agency is the self-assessment of companies through a labor verification platform.

On this platform, companies submit a series of documents to be exempt from inspection for one year. Every 365 days, firms must comply with this requirement, indicating how many employees they have, their IMSS (Mexican Social Security Institute) registrations, and submitting the necessary documentation.

According to the 2025 Annual Work Program, the STyFE (Secretariat of Labor and Employment Promotion) aimed to conduct 1,000 labor inspections, of which 950 would be extraordinary and 50 ordinary. Between October 2024 and August 2025, the first year of the current local administration, it only carried out 592 visits to workplaces.

This figure represents 59.2 percent of the total target for reviews and only 0.1 percent of the workplaces that could be inspected.

Ángel Armando and the 40-Hour Front promote the reduction of the working day and support for workers who are victims of violence or non-compliance with labor obligations.

González Nicolás asserted that his administration seeks dialogue between companies, unions, workers, and the government.

“We strongly believe in dialogue; fines are our last resort. What matters to us is that companies comply because that’s how workers’ rights are guaranteed,” he said.

The STyFE announced yesterday the start of the implementation of legislation on digital platforms to move from institutional support to the phase of verifying compliance with employer obligations.

According to the agency, the inspections will be focused on strategic sectors of the economy and will be progressively intensified.

“With these actions, the capital is moving forward with the effective implementation of labor reform regarding work on digital platforms,” González Nicolás stated in a press release.