The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE) of Mexico confirmed this Friday that it will pay the corresponding January payroll next Monday, after the staff of the Mexican Foreign Service (SEM) sent a letter to the country's president, Claudia Sheinbaum, requesting this payment. SEM reported that the more than one thousand people who make it up are 'without payroll payment or legal benefits', despite the resources being contemplated by the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit (SHCP) for this year's exercise and the fact that the General Directorate of the Foreign Service assured that they would be received by workers on January 8, and specified, 'this has not happened'. In response to this demand, the SRE published a communiqué confirming that 'the payroll payment' for the staff abroad 'corresponding to January of this year, will be covered next Monday, January 12'. The agency explained that the lack of payment occurred due to a 'delay in the schedule'. 'Due to the opening of the fiscal year and the payment systems that involve international transfers, there was a delay in the schedule', the document detailed. Likewise, it pointed out that 'the corresponding procedures are already being carried out to guarantee that this benefit is covered' on the date mentioned. This Friday afternoon, SEM called on Sheinbaum to make this payment effective and noted that 'it is not unknown to the head of state' that 'Mexican diplomatic personnel works with a salary that has not been subject to review for more than 25 years'. 'We call for her solidarity in our search for respect for basic labor guarantees, such as the payment of the payroll in the agreed terms and the review of our precarious salary conditions'. It also specified that the situation in the technical-administrative branch forces its members to 'live with salaries below the poverty line in many assignments'. 'We do not have additional income and the complexities inherent in the banking systems of the countries in which we serve rarely allow for a favorable access to financing for foreigners'. And it also warned that not receiving this salary on time automatically results in the 'non-compliance of commitments' abroad, such as housing rentals, tuition, and basic services. Mexican personnel abroad living in cities in the United States also faces the 'constant risk of evictions'.
