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"We cleaned to the dining room": lights and shadows of outsourcing in the promotion

"We cleaned to the dining room": lights and shadows of outsourcing in the promotion

"In one of the largest supermarkets we cleaned the employee dining room every eight days, because they told us that as we used it, we also had the obligation to clean it," says Lilia Almazán, a woman who has worked for 15 years in services in servicesDemonstration in different self -service stores with temporary contracts and signing renunciation letters in case the project concludes before.

In his 15 years of care.Of course, when it came to cleaning, Lilia Almazán constantly had.

The promotion and demonstration services are common in supermarkets and shopping centers, their activity is based on convincing the customer to buy a product highlighting the qualities of this.But the people who perform these tasks are hired through agencies and outside business where they have the approach with consumers.

These services are also regulated by the subcontracting reform that prohibited outsourcing from staff supply.Through a guide for the registration of specialized services providers or specialized works (REPSE), the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare (STPS) reported that these activities must comply with the new subcontracting standards and, therefore, are applicableto promoter and demonstration staff.

“In the case of natural or moral persons who make personal available to a contract linked to advertising, marketing, dissemination of products or brands, they must circumscribe their activity to the object of the contract, without being able to carry out activities of the contracting party,otherwise the assumption of the subcontracting prohibited by law would be updated, ”said the agency.

Fabiola Davo, president of the Mexican Association of Promotions Agencies (AMAPRO), considers that the subcontracting reform is positive because it eliminates the unfair competition of companies that did not comply with all legal obligations.“What began to happen years ago is that the competition was who had cheaper social charges or the fiscal strategy, which has nothing to do with us.Suddenly the fiscal lawyers and accountants began to enter the industry ”.

An organic process

The representative of the agencies states that the market dynamics itself caused the promoter and demonstration personnel to begin to perform tasks that may be, in practical terms, outside the services they provide, but that are equally important to ensure the positioning ofbrand.

“Self -service has to make the product in existence, but I as a cereal promoter, if I want to boost my brand, I do a huge job to put more cereals than they fit in the shelf;For example, an island to find another cereal when you go to another hallway.That part of the strategy is what we do, that the consumer clashes with the product, is impacted with a material that says: buy this cereal, ”explains the president of AMAPRO.

“Limpiábamos hasta el comedor”: Luces y sombras del outsourcing en la promotoría

However, in the day to day the execution of these tasks lent itself to the departmental stores commissioned other activities to the promoters.“Suddenly they asked him to do something for cleaning or basic self -service because the promoter was already there.That is what has to be limited because, no matter how much a soda falls, it is not the promoter of the brand that has to clean it, but the self -service personnel.But they are things that occurred more organically, ”acknowledges Fabiola Davo.

The subcontracting reform establishes that the specialized services are all those where a contractor makes their own personal disposal for the benefit of the client and the hired tasks are executed at the contracting party facilities in a permanent, indefinite or periodic way.

“Those natural or moral persons linked to advertising, marketing, dissemination of products or brands, must have the repse and deliver it to those, in favor of which personal is provided or made available (brands, stores or physical sales channels) ”, Indicates the STPS in his guide.

A specialized service

"Probably in some cases there could have been some inappropriate or improper use of the figure," acknowledges Jaime Bustamante, vice president of the Labor Commission of the Patronal Confederation of the Mexican Republic (Coparmex).

The employer representative ensures that these services comply with a series of elements to catalog them as specialized in the maximum extension of the word."Training and a series of important elements or knowledge are required about the characteristics of the product and also on the logistics that must be implemented to make available to the final consumer of the product".

It coincides, for example, that accommodating the shelves is a task linked to the marketing strategy of the promoter services and although the direct beneficiary is the brand, the supermarket of these activities could have benefited.

"It is important to know the limits of the responsibilities, of the powers that everyone must have, especially in the realization of specialized service, that the company that frees it makes it fully comply with all the legal obligations now established," says theMember of Coparmex.

Goodbye to abuse

Lilia Almazán is one of the more than 800,000 people who work in promoter and demonstration services in Mexico.He has come to work up to 11 am a day, not counting his transfers to self -service stores.

On that extensive day, their activities have not only limited themselves to convincing the consumer to buy a product, cleaning some spaces in shopping centers has been a standardized practice between this workforce, extra tasks for which they do not pay them and inoccasions, salary debts for the activities that are within their competence are up to three months.

“Yes, a series of abuses are incurred because work relationships were disguised or other characteristics were given. Creo que la reforma sí está inhibiendo esos abusos y es una parte positiva de la reforma”, opina Óscar de la Vega, socio de la firma D&M Abogados.

In that sense, the specialist warns that in the next stage of the reform, of surveillance, companies can be fined with a penalty of up to 4 million pesos if inspectors find promoter personnel performing tasks that are part of the corporate purpose and activitypreponderant economy of the mall or supermarket.

“This sanction is very strong, but it is correct and it will help to have greater control.I think the infrastructure is given to avoid these abuses, especially for the periodic reports that will be shared.They will promote the formality of these companies that are dedicated to the promotion and dissemination of products, ”says the lawyer.

At the moment, the challenge for these businesses, adds the specialist, is to obtain the repse, because they must verify that it is a specialized service.In addition, the lack of legal certainty about whether or not workers are made by workers is complicating the hiring of these services.

"For the same topic, different points of view," says Héctor González, corporate director of Labor Relations of Walmart Mexico and Central America, considering that STPS has generated uncertainty with the difference in interpretations.

For example, for loading and discharge functions that involve placement of products in shelves, the agency has expressed that repse is not required, but the "shelf" that place merchandise in shelves, clean and resurrend, must be considered functions of the store,And promoter services must also be registered in the Registry of the Secretary of Labor.

Training to bosses

Specialists agree that legal modifications, regardless of doubts that still exist, imply that department stores train their staff to prevent promoter and demonstration personnel from performing tasks outside the activities that correspond to them.

Agencies and promoters themselves were at a crossroads when they were asked in cleaning tasks, for example.How to constantly deny when your work is involved or the contract?“If you said I can't, they could cut the project.But now it is very clear to say I can't because the law prohibits it and is beneficial for everyone, ”says Fabiola Davo, president of the AMAPRO.

This change in dynamics requires that supermarkets train their staff so as not to incur an irregularity. “Se necesita capacitación para todos, para los supervisores de la tienda para que no ponga a trapear a esta persona en otros lados y para el personal que está prestando estos servicios de que sólo se debe dedicar y probablemente acotarlo, a las áreas donde se promueven sus productos”, señala Óscar de la Vega, socio de D&M abogados.

Jaime Bustamante agrees that stores must do an important awareness and awareness work.“They are obliged to have a better training for the store staff so that they know and apply the exact limits of what will be the provision of the necessary spaces for the realization of these activities and that they will not be able to have aDirect intervention with the staff of the agencies or brands, ”says the vice president of the Coparmex Labor Commission.

The subcontracting reform is the hope of Lilia Almazán and many other workers who are dedicated to the promoter and demonstration of products to have better working conditions, but not only that, also of receiving fair treatment.

Filed in:

Capital HumanoServicios de promotoríaoutsourcingsubcontrataciónLey Federal del Trabajo