Article 390 Bis Federal Labor Law

In order to request the entering into of the initial collective employment contract it shall be indispensable that the labor union obtain from the Federal Center for Conciliation and Labor Registration the Certificate of Representativeness, in order to guarantee the principles of representativeness in the union organizations and certainty in the signing, registration and deposit of the collective employment contracts. This certificate shall be issued in accordance with the following:

I.The request to obtain the Certificate of Representativeness shall be presented by one or several labor unions before the Federal Center for Conciliation and Labor Registration. Said request shall be made in writing and shall contain the name of the requesting party, as well as the domicile at which the corresponding notifications shall be made to it; likewise, the domicile and name or the identification data of the employer or workplace must be stated, as well as the activity to which it is dedicated. Additionally, the request must be accompanied by a listing in which it is proven that the requesting labor union has the support of at least thirty percent of the employees covered by the collective contract; said listing must include the name, CURP, date of hiring and handwritten signature of the employees that support the requesting labor union.

The Federal Center for Conciliation and Labor Registration shall keep in secret and shall safeguard under its strictest responsibility the confidentiality of the listing and the annexes that the requesting party presents.

If the aforementioned data are not provided, the Registration Authority within the following three days shall warn the requesting party to remedy its request, which it must do within the three days following the notification.

The fact that the workplace operates in an informal manner or under schemes of simulation shall not affect the employees in the exercise of their freedom of collective bargaining and the defense of their interests;

II.The Federal Center for Conciliation and Labor Registration, within a term no greater than three days counted from the presentation of the request, shall publish on its Internet site the notice of request for Certificate of Representativeness, shall post said notice in the workplace and shall request the employer to place it inside the workplace in the places of greatest concentration in order to make it known to the employees and to any other labor union that wishes to obtain the Certificate of Representativeness, so that the latter may promote its adhesion to the request, for which the rules established in Article 388 of this Law shall be observed; said adhesion request may be presented in writing before the Federal Center for Conciliation and Labor Registration within the ten days following the publication of the notice of request, stating the name of the adhering party, as well as its domicile to hear and receive notifications, and must accompany the listing that proves that it has the support of at least thirty percent of the employees covered by the collective contract. The fact that the names of the employees appear in two or more listings presented by the labor unions shall not be an impediment for the admission of the adhesion request;

III.The Federal Center for Conciliation and Labor Registration shall rule on the admissibility of the request for the Certificate of Representativeness; if it results admissible, it shall issue the corresponding certificate. If only one labor union requests the certificate, its representativeness shall be deemed proven when it has the support of at least thirty percent of the employees covered by the collective contract. In this case, the Center shall gather from the pertinent authorities and bodies the information necessary to verify that the employees contemplated in the listing that the requesting labor union presents represent at least thirty percent of the employees in the service of the employer from whom the signing of the collective employment contract is requested.

If more than one labor union has contended, the right to negotiate and enter into the collective contract shall correspond to the one that obtains the greatest number of votes in accordance with the rules contemplated in Article 388 of this Law. In all cases, the number of voting employees must be at least thirty percent of the employees covered by the collective contract whose signing is requested. For the foregoing, the following consultation procedure must be observed:

a)The Federal Center for Conciliation and Labor Registration shall validate that the contending labor unions prove the support of at least thirty percent of the employees covered by the collective contract, in which case it shall proceed to gather from the corresponding authorities or bodies the information or elements necessary to prepare a register, which shall consist of a listing of the employees of the workplace who will be consulted by personal, free, direct and secret vote, excluding the employees in a position of trust or those who join after the presentation of the request. The employees who have been dismissed from work during the three months prior or subsequent to the presentation of the request document shall be part of the register, except for those who have terminated their employment relationship, unless it is sub iudice.

If it deems it necessary, the Federal Center for Conciliation and Labor Registration may request the support of the Labor Inspection office or another public official that the labor authorities enable for such purpose. Should the requesting party require it, these must appear at the workplace to prepare the listing in question, with the information or the elements available at the moment. The listing that will serve as the basis for the consultation of the employees must be prepared by the Federal Center for Conciliation and Labor Registration no later than the term of ten days following the presentation of a second request for certificate. The employer may not intervene in this procedure;

b)Once the register that will serve as the basis for the consultation of the employees has been formed, the Federal Center for Conciliation and Labor Registration shall issue the corresponding call, stating the place, day and hour at which the voting must take place; the call shall be issued at least ten days in advance of it, without exceeding fifteen days. Said Center must guarantee that the place designated for the voting is accessible to the employees and meets the necessary conditions so that they cast their vote in a free, peaceful, agile and secure manner, without being able to be coerced in any way.

The call shall be notified to the requesting party and shall be published electronically on the Internet site of the Federal Center for Conciliation and Labor Registration. Likewise it shall be posted in the workplace to make it known to the employees who will participate in the voting;

c)Each requesting party may previously accredit before the Registration Authority two representatives for each voting place, who must be allowed to be present during it, specifically in the installation and accreditation of voters, as well as in the acts of scrutiny and counting of votes, without being able to be in the assigned space in which the employees deposit their vote.

No person outside the procedure may be present in the voting, unless the registration authority has accredited them as an observer of the voting. Said authority shall take care and provide what is conducive so that no person who is not authorized participates or intervenes in the development of the voting procedure;

d)The vote of the employees shall be made in a personal, free, direct and secret manner. For such purpose, the Registration Authority shall order the prior preparation of as many voting ballots as employees have been accredited in accordance with this article, which shall be duly numbered, sealed and authorized with the signature of the official commissioned by said authority; the ballots must contain the sufficient boxes and of the same size, according to the number of requesting labor unions, in which the name of the labor union or labor unions participating in the voting must appear;

e)At the hour, date and place stated in the call, the consultation shall begin with the presence of the parties that attend it; prior to the entry of the employees, the official commissioned by the Registration Authority shall install the booth or booths necessary for the casting of the vote of the employees in secret, as well as the transparent ballot box or boxes in which the votes will be deposited, and must verify that they are empty. Immediately thereafter, upon identification with a valid official document, the entry of the employees entitled to vote shall proceed and each one shall be provided with their ballot to cast it.

During the voting procedure, no employee may wear a color, stickers, emblems or any element that distinguishes them as a member or sympathizer of any of the requesting labor unions;

f)The name of the voter must not appear on the ballot, nor may any mark or data be recorded in the listing that makes it possible to identify the number of the ballot that was given to them. The official commissioned by the Registration Authority shall provide the employee with their ballot, who must go to the booth placed to mark it in absolute secrecy.

Once the employee marks their ballot, they shall fold it to avoid showing the direction of their vote and shall deposit it in the ballot box placed for such purpose, and must leave the voting place;

g)Once the voting has concluded, the empowered official of the Registration Authority shall proceed to carry out the scrutiny, opening each ballot box successively, extracting each ballot one by one, examining them to corroborate their authenticity and showing them to the representatives of the parties. The uncrossed ballots and those marked in more than one box shall be considered null, placing the ballots separately in accordance with the direction of each vote, while the null ones shall be placed apart;

h)Immediately thereafter, the empowered official shall proceed to the counting of the votes and shall announce its result aloud;

i)In the event that acts of coercion or intimidation arise to prevent the employees from exercising their vote with full freedom, or an attempt is made to obstruct or prevent them in any way from accessing the place of the proceeding, the empowered official shall request the assistance of the public force and shall take the measures deemed conducive to hold the voting under the conditions established by this Law; if the existence of any unlawful act is presumed, they must present the corresponding report;

j)Once the consultation has concluded, the empowered official shall draw up a record of it and shall request the representatives of the parties to sign it. The refusal to sign it on their part shall not affect the validity of the record, and

k)The Federal Center for Conciliation and Labor Registration shall rule on the admissibility of the request for the Certificate of Representativeness; if it results admissible, it shall issue the corresponding certificate.