Job Discussion Forums

[Ben Round de Bloc]

[moonraven]

Something smells here. I don't know how long you have been working at the university where you are, but so far as I know all employers must deduct the IMSS health care amount from your salary each quincena, and match the amount. You say you are non-tenured, but are you in the n�mina? Do you have an FM-3? If you are in the n�mina, in addition to the IMSS amounts, which are every 2 weeks, the employer must deposit with the IMSS every 2 months the payment for retirement (SAR) and for housing credits (INFONAVIT). Those amounts then are transferred to the AFORE that you have chosen. Everyone who is working legally has the right to choose and AFORE and to those benefits. The university where I worked last year also had a retirement plan for profs--but it was completely separate from the IMSS health coverage and the amounts they were required by law to deposit for SAR and INFONAVIT.

I think you are being ripped off--big time. But I don't know what your employee status is. If you are working under the table, you have no rights. If you are working legally, you have all of them.

[Ben Round de Bloc]

moonraven,

I started working at the state university in January of 1996. The university where I work does not employ foreigners without work visas. Actually, it hardly employs foreigners, period. I have an FM-2.

I chose to get paid n�mina rather than honorarios. I had a tax accountant check it out, and the amount the university holds out for income taxes is so close to what I'd have to pay that it wouldn't be worth the hassle of having to deal with hacienda for the few pesos I could save. However, the language school where I first worked after moving here gave me no choice. The only option was honorarios.

Non-tenured teachers don't have continuing contracts. Every semester we get new ones, not the old ones renewed but different ones, for a total of 24 contracted quincenas per year. Holiday breaks and summer vacations are within our contracted times and are paid. This is relatively new for us, however. In the past non-tenured contracts started with the first day of classes of a semester and ended with the last day of semester exams, so we didn't get paid between semesters or for the month of August. We also get an end-of-year bonus + an aguinaldo.

Why would the employer (the state university) and the employee (yours truly) pay money into IMSS health care if nobody at the university uses IMSS health care?

Why would I pay for housing credits (INFONAVIT) since as a foreigner I can't legally own a house or property with the title in my name here? Or, is there some way to apply INFONAVIT to a fideocomiso? Not that I'd "buy" a house here through a bank trust anyway, but I am curious.

[moonraven]

I still feel you are getting the shaft. The university I referred to in my post is also a state university, and they also give 6 months contracts to non-tenured profs (BUT after 2 you must either go for tenure or leave.) They also pay the IMSS, and deduct the corresponding amount from the profs' checks. They also pay the SAR and INFONAVIT--this is required by law if you are in the n�mina--and not one centavo is your money. I doubt seriously that any of us really want the INFONAVIT fund, given not only what you mentioned but also the extremely poor quality of the "social interest housing". However, it doesn't hurt to have more than 100,000 pesos (what I currently have) in that AFORE gaining a little interest (not much, as the bank commissions eat up most of it) and maybe being added to before I decide to "retire". I didn't contribute any of it, after all, so why not? And I started working on n�mina basis also in January of 1996. Now you see, I think, how much they have screwed you out of. It may well be the case that when I want to take the money out, it will have mysteriously disappeared--after all this is Mexico--but until then it is real money. And I am turning 60 this year, if I don't mysteriously disappear, too....

As for paying the IMSS when nobody uses it--yeah, that can be a sore point--I haven't gotten a lot of benefit from it--in fact have made out better at the IMSS when I was between jobs and wasn't active: one of my "family" here is a nurse at one of the IMSS hospitals and I have had better service being "sneaked in" by her, as I haven't had to wait around. There are many ironies, but I can tell you that your employer is not complying with the law--no wonder they have never mentioned AFORES to you--although usually the salespeople for the AFORES manage to sneak onto the campuses to try to sell their product. I threw out one guy last year who showed up the same day that the top management of his AFORE became fugitives from justice for fraud! Poor sucker didn't know it--I had just seen it on the Internet La Jornada so it was fresh in my mind when he sidled in to make his pitch.

And the last shot--most accountants here don't even know credits from debits. When I could not afford to teach in the US I worked as one, had my own business, etc.--and I have had to go over basic accounting principles with the accountants every place I have worked here in Mexico. In their defense--they are paid very poorly, and Hacienda changes the tax rules and tables every 15 or 20 minutes, so it really isn't worth it for them to have any skills.

[MELEE]

[Ben Round de Bloc]

[moonraven]

Melee seems to have the right idea--especially since it appears she's going to stay here for awhile: finding alternative ways to use the INFONAVIT credit. At my age, the only alternative use that would be useful for me would be to withdraw the balance in my AFORE. I have been trying to help several families in the region where I live defend themselves against the contractors for the INFONAVIT and FOVISSSTE houses that they have bought--and which still have no electricity, toilets, gas installations, etc. Helping folks who are not skilled at looking out for their interests is something that those of us who do have those skills can do here. It's a great way to give something back to the communities that allow us to live happily here!

[lozwich]

I accidentally ended up in one of these in Cancun when I got on the wrong bus to Plaza de las Americas (an adventure in itself!)

Reminds me of that song...

Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes made of ticky-tacky,
Little boxes, little boxes,
Little boxes, all the same.
There's a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one
And they're all made out of ticky-tacky
And they all look just the same.

http://ingeb.org/songs/littlebo.html

[moonraven]

Yeah, they all look just the same--but it's the only way the majority of Mexican workers can own a home. They need to be criticized FIRST for their poor quality--which is a result of curruption: "contractors" pay bribes to get the building contracts for those projects, and take the bribe money back out of the materials budget--meaning that they leave the buyers holding the bag for installations that the contractor doesn't provide. Many projects have been condemned and closed because they were falling down before they were occupied--and in many cases the people who bought them are still having the payments deducted every 2 weeks from their paychecks. The aesthetics of the projects may be addressed after the corrupt system that rips their owners off coming and going has been liquidated.

[Ben Round de Bloc]

[moonraven]

Yeah--those benefits provided to the unionized workers are apparently so good that they (management) have found the way to reduce the size of the labor pool that gets those benefits: by using the Temporary Contract Scam. In most places, it's the administrative folks at lower levels who are handed that scam. Too bad you like your job so much. I would be looking elsewhere--those pesos add up, as I mentioned earlier--and keep adding....Since you seemtolike research things, you might peek at La Ley Federal de Trabajo--I believe it specifies 3 temporary contracts maximum and employee either is let go or considered permanent.