On December 14, 2025, the deadline granted by the reform known as the "Silla Law" for employers to adapt their internal regulations to comply with the provisions of Section V of Article 132 of the Federal Labor Law expires. However, questions remain regarding how compliance with these obligations will be audited.
According to the publication of the Chair Law, employers must provide a sufficient number of seats or chairs with backrests available to all employees to perform their duties or for periodic rest breaks during the workday.
Although on June 17, 2025, the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare (STPS) published in the Official Gazette of the Federation the Provisions on occupational risk factors to guarantee the right to rest during the working day for standing workers (Provisions), these are ambiguous, so there is no certainty regarding how compliance with the Silla Law will be audited.
The General Directorate of Inspections of the STPS has announced in various forums that, given the ambiguity of the Provisions, it is working on a new version of the Provisions that defines the minimum rest periods that must be granted to workers who work in prolonged standing.
These new provisions are expected to be published before December 14, 2025, and while it has been informally claimed that compliance with the Silla Law will not be audited until its scope is clarified, this does not exempt employers from their obligations.
The Provisions impose, among others, the following obligations on employers:
- Conduct a risk analysis and integrate it into the occupational health and safety diagnosis or program, or into the corresponding preventive and corrective actions.
- Record in the minutes of the health and safety committee's inspections the risks detected for each worker who remains standing during their shift, as well as the preventive measures to be applied.
- Determine the level of risk to which each worker is exposed through the scoring procedure provided for in the Provisions.
- Provide the most suitable type of seat or chair with backrest: high bench or coat rack type: if standing with occasional support is required; medium back high chair: to alternate postures; adjustable ergonomic chair: whether the task can be done sitting down; or footrest: if the seat height requires it.
- Inform workers about the risks to which they are exposed and the preventive measures implemented in the workplace.
- Mark areas where seats or chairs with backrests are located when these are different from the workplace.
- Refer workers exposed to standing to medical attention when they experience symptoms of discomfort or impairment that may be related to their posture.
In view of the above, employers are urged to i) assess the risks to which workers who remain standing during their workday are exposed; ii) adapt its internal regulations in accordance with the obligations arising from the Silla Law; as well as (iii) monitor the publication of this new version of the Provisions, as this may change the strategy that was defined to comply with the law in question.
