University of Nayarit has been negligent in employer contributions: IMSS

Tonight, the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) reported that the Autonomous University of Nayarit (UAN) has failed to pay the employer-employee contributions (COP) and retirement, severance pay for advanced age and old age (RCV) contributions for periods dating back to fiscal year 2014, which – as of today – amount to 1,738.1 million pesos.

He recalled that the institute operates thanks to the income it receives from employer-employee contributions. This collection represents 93 percent of the total income available to provide the set of social security benefits.

He explained that the aforementioned debt, in addition to affecting the Institute’s finances, compromising the benefits that it is legally required to provide, directly impacts the workers of that educational institution, since an amount of around 700 million pesos corresponds to the RCV insurance, which must be directly allocated to their individual retirement accounts, for their proper funding and to obtain a pension in accordance with the worker’s salary.

“The IMSS, despite not having received the contributions that this University should have made, has at no time stopped providing medical, economic and in-kind benefits to the workers of said institution.”

In addition, the Institute has offered an extraordinary package of facilities for the regularization of UAN debts, among which are: the granting of forgiveness of 90 percent of fines, the signing of the installment payment agreement without the corresponding presentation of the fiscal interest guarantee and the deferral of the payment of the entire amount on account.

The IMSS explained that in July 2022, with the intervention of the state government and the consent of the union sections of the academic institution, the University signed an installment payment agreement with the IMSS; “However, starting in October 2022, the university began to make payments outside the agreed schedule and in part, until, in September 2023, it failed to pay the agreed installments in full.

“Despite the extraordinary package of facilities referred to, the university decided to file various lawsuits to hinder the exercise of the Institute’s collection powers; spending extraordinary resources on said litigation instead of seeking mechanisms to regularize its debts, a situation that even prevents it from signing new payment agreements today, until the lawsuits filed as delaying measures are withdrawn.”

After several working meetings -without results- between the UAN and the IMSS, with the support of representatives of the state government and the Ministry of Public Education, aimed at resuming compliance with payment obligations; after the university filed defense actions, and after 12 months without any payment of the debt, the Institute was forced to exercise the economic coercive powers that allow avoiding the prescription of the corresponding credits, seeking to safeguard both the rights of workers and institutional finances.

In order to “avoid affecting the rights of its employees, since this institution does not have the bank accounts designated for the payment of salaries and benefits labeled, this Institute made extraordinary arrangements with the National Banking and Securities Commission, in order to release the accounts that, under oath, the university’s rectorship indicated as payroll accounts, which, if they had been registered with the banking institutions as such at the time, would not have been subject to seizure.”

“The withholding and lack of worker contributions to the Institute, as well as the omission in the payment of employer contributions, constitutes a legal breach that could be classified as a crime of tax fraud; for this reason it is urgent that the university regularizes its debts with the IMSS and makes the payment of the corresponding resources to the individual accounts of the workers.”

The Institute stated that “with a constructive spirit, it reiterates its full willingness to conclude the necessary process aimed at regularizing and paying the debts of the Autonomous University of Nayarit.”