Workplace Medical Examinations & Drug Testing in Mexico

The following excerpt from our Mexico Country Essential Guide provides an overview of the legal landscape related to workplace medical examinations and Drug Testing.

Under Mexican law, employers may condition employment upon the satisfactory completion of medical examination. However, such request must precede any offer of employment. A pre-employment medical exam requires the consent of the applicant and must be conducted by the employer’s authorized physician (when made in house) or by an authorized laboratory or physician (if outsourced). Any proof of consent must contain specific language indicating that the candidate agrees to submit to medical testing. The purposes of collecting such sensitive personal data and a candidate’s authorization for having such data transferred to the employer must be included in the privacy notice. A candidate’s refusal to consent to medical examination provides grounds to deny employment, if such conditioning is justified by the job characteristics and responsibilities.

The results of employee medical examinations must be treated as strictly confidential by any of the parties that are part of the information processing and according to the privacy notice. Such information must be kept and retained by the laboratory or authorized physician for a period of at least five years; regarding the employer, the information must be discarded when it is no longer necessary.

Drug Testing

Employment offers may be made contingent upon negative drug test results. As with medical examinations, any request for a drug screen must be made prior to extending an offer of plant. An employer may elect not to hire a candidate if he or she refuses to consent to a drug test. Records of employee drug screens are highly confidential and must be processed according to the terms and conditions of the corresponding privacy notice, and discarded by the employer as soon as they are no longer necessary.

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