Article 162 Federal Labor Law

Permanent employees have the right to a seniority premium, in accordance with the following norms:

I.The seniority premium shall consist of the amount of twelve days of wage, for each year of services;

II.To determine the amount of the wage, the provisions of articles 485 and 486 shall be observed;

III.The seniority premium shall be paid to the employees who voluntarily separate from their employment, provided they have completed at least fifteen years of services. Likewise it shall be paid to those who separate for justified cause and to those who are separated from their employment, independently of the justification or lack of justification of the dismissal;

IV.For the payment of the premium in the cases of voluntary retirement of the employees, the following norms shall be observed:

a)If the number of employees who retire within the term of one year does not exceed ten percent of the total of the employees of the enterprise or establishment, or of those of a determined category, the payment shall be made at the moment of retirement.

b)If the number of employees who retire exceeds ten percent, payment shall be made to those who retire first and the payment to the employees who exceed said percentage may be deferred to the following year.

c)If the retirement is effected at the same time by a number of employees greater than the mentioned percentage, the premium shall be paid to those who have greater seniority and the payment of that corresponding to the remaining employees may be deferred to the following year;

V.In case of death of the employee, whatever his seniority, the corresponding premium shall be paid to the persons mentioned in article 501; and

VI.The seniority premium referred to in this article shall be paid to the employees or to their beneficiaries, independently of any other benefit corresponding to them.