Mexico Weighs Proposal to Allow Vacation Day Donations

A proposal presented this week in Mexico’s Chamber of Deputies seeks to amend the Federal Labor Law to allow employees to donate unused vacation days to coworkers who require additional time off for family care or parental leave.

“Several social debts remain with the country’s workers; one of them is precisely the possibility of deciding freely and autonomously whether to help a colleague by donating rest days to those who need them,” said Carina Piceno Navarro, Deputy, MORENA, and promoter of the initiative, as cited by El Economista.

The reform aims to establish a regulated framework for vacation donation, limiting potential misuse while ensuring that workers do not lose their statutory minimum rest period. Under current law, employees receive a minimum of 12 vacation days after their first year of service, and only days exceeding this baseline could be donated.

The mechanism would not involve direct exchanges between employees but would be managed by employers through a formal procedure. Workers requesting additional time off would need to submit a written application with supporting documentation. Employers would then have 18 hours to notify staff internally of the request. Colleagues interested in donating days would inform the employer, who would confirm the number of days collected and allocated. The transfer would remain anonymous and voluntary, and donated days would still count toward the donor’s vacation bonus calculation.

Piceno Navarro noted that the initiative draws on French legislation adopted in 2014, commonly referred to as the “Mathys Law.” The measure originated after a 2009 case in which Christophe Germain, an employee in Saint-Galmier, received 170 donated vacation days from coworkers to care for his son Mathys, who was battling liver cancer. Following his son’s death, Germain advocated for regulation, leading to the establishment of a system that permits French workers to anonymously transfer leave to colleagues caring for seriously ill children.