The Ninth Collegiate Tribunal of the First Circuit for Labor Matters recently published opinion number I.9o.T.67 L (10th), entitled: “Overtime. Time which an employee, on his/her own initiative, spends preparing to perform work, commuting to the workplace, or performing any other activity in order to be able to render services, shall not be considered overtime, unless such has been agreed to by the employer.” In its opinion, the Court concluded that the time spent by an employee "in preparing to perform work, commuting to the workplace, or performing any other activity in order to be able to render services," without the employee being subject to the employer’s control, may not be considered overtime under Mexican labor law, and that to insist otherwise would mean that an employee could decide on his/her own to accumulate overtime without being subject to the employer's control, when in fact overtime is the extension of normal working hours in which the employee continues to be subject to the employer’s control. Accordingly, all employers should verify the employment conditions they have agreed to with their employees to determine on a case by case basis whether overtime applies.
