STPS REPSE inspections: how they arrive, what they request and how to respond
In September 2025 Mexico's Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare (Secretaría del Trabajo y Previsión Social, STPS) issued its Inspection Protocol on Subcontracting (Protocolo de Inspección en Materia de Subcontratación): the internal manual its inspectors use to oversee REPSE. Visits reach the specialized-service provider and the client, most of them currently take place without prior notice, and the list of documents is handed over when the visit starts. This guide summarizes what that protocol instructs inspectors to review.
The three ways the authority arrives
| Oversight action | Who it reaches | Prior notice |
|---|---|---|
| REPSE verification visit (visita de constatación) | Whoever applies for the registration or already holds it; the visit can come before the registration is granted | The protocol does not say |
| Subcontracting inspection | Providers and client companies (empresas beneficiarias) | Currently scheduled as extraordinary inspections: no prior notice |
| Ordinary inspection with a cross-cutting approach | Any workplace: subcontracting indicators are reviewed in every ordinary labor inspection | Ordinary: summons 24 hours ahead; extraordinary: no prior notice |
The 24-hour summons for ordinary inspections is, in practice, the only notice a company may ever receive, and one day is not enough to build a compliance file from scratch. The protocol's method is the same in all three: documents, worker interviews and a physical walkthrough of the workplace.
Why one company is inspected and not another
Inspections are not drawn by lot: the Federal Labor Inspection Directorate (Dirección General de Inspección Federal del Trabajo) uses information from the IMSS, the SAT and Infonavit as risk factors to schedule them. What triggers a visit is inconsistency between what was declared to each authority: what is recorded in REPSE against what is reported in the ICSOE, in SISUB and to the SAT. A company whose records tell the same story to all four authorities has, by construction, fewer reasons to appear in the program. The STPS can also request information at any time without opening a visit: from the provider, from any authority, or directly from the client company.
What they ask for at the door
The visit opens with an attached list of information (listado anexo de información). The documents that recur in the inspection checklists, for both parties: articles of incorporation (Acta Constitutiva), tax status certificate (Constancia de Situación Fiscal), IMSS employer card (tarjeta patronal) and proof of address (the verification visit is the exception: its list does not ask for the employer card). The provider is also asked for the current REPSE registration notice (Aviso de Registro), the contract with each client, the last three ICSOE and SISUB filing acknowledgements, the SUA payment statement (cédula SUA) for the month, one month of payroll receipts, the individual employment contracts and the training certificates. The client company is asked for the list of its providers, the full roster of workers assigned to it and evidence that they are registered with the IMSS.
- The REPSE notice is checked by scanning its QR code or by consulting the public registry. A forged PDF does not survive the door; scanning the QR code on your own notice (and on each provider's notice) before an inspector does is the cheapest check there is.
- A document that is not produced does not go unnoticed. The person attending the visit must state, under oath to tell the truth (bajo protesta de decir verdad), why it is not attached. The absence is recorded in detail in the inspection record: it is evidence, not a pending item.
- Electronic delivery is allowed during the visit. Documents that are not physically at the workplace can be delivered electronically on the spot. With an organized digital file, that rule lets you deliver whatever is requested in minutes.
The door script, step by step
- Ask for the credential. The first thing the protocol orders the inspector to do is show a current photo credential issued by the competent authority. Seeing it is your right and your first check.
- Receive three documents, not one. In an inspection you receive the inspection order, the guide to rights and obligations, and the attached list of information. In a verification visit, the verification letter (oficio de constatación); that visit closes with the minutes without attachments (minuta sin anexos), while an inspection closes with the inspection record (acta).
- The record documents the door itself. The inspector notes whether the workplace was located and whether access was allowed, and takes photographs of the premises; a refusal to attend the visit is recorded in detail.
- Refusing is very expensive. The Federal Labor Law (Ley Federal del Trabajo, LFT, art. 1004-A) is blunt: an employer that does not allow the inspection is summoned to produce all the requested information, with the warning that if it does not, it will be presumed not to have that information, in addition to a fine of 250 to 5,000 UMA. The presumption is the strongest argument for a standing compliance file: if the file exists and is handed over, nothing is presumed against you.
Worker interviews
In verification visits and subcontracting inspections, the protocol sets the sample: with 1 to 50 workers, 100% are interviewed; with 51 to 100, 50%; with more than 100, 40%. In ordinary labor inspections with the cross-cutting approach, the protocol sets no percentage and calls for "la mayor cantidad de entrevistas posibles" (as many interviews as possible) when non-compliance is detected. Minors are always interviewed, regardless of the sample. In REPSE verification visits (only there: the protocol provides no such mechanism for subcontracting inspections), if a worker cannot be interviewed the same day, the minutes are partially closed and the worker must be presented on the next working day; only in that case are remote interviews allowed (Teams, Zoom, FaceTime, WhatsApp), with identity proven by showing official ID on camera or by providing the CURP (Mexico's personal population registry code).
The questionnaire looks for contradictions between paper and reality: who pays the worker against who gives the worker instructions (taking orders from the client is the classic sign of disguised subcontracting), how many payroll receipts the worker gets per pay period (more than one points to a split-payment scheme), whether the worker has been asked to sign contracts with different legal entities (employer substitution), whether the worker received training and from whom, and whether profit sharing has been paid in the last three years.
The five types of violation the inspector looks for
| Category | What it is |
|---|---|
| Documentary irregularities | Inconsistencies in the information or documents submitted to REPSE. |
| Prohibited subcontracting | Services that fall within the client's corporate purpose or main economic activity. This is the conduct that article 12 of the LFT prohibits and the one that triggers the criminal scenario of Federal Tax Code (Código Fiscal de la Federación, CFF) article 108. |
| Irregular subcontracting | Genuinely specialized services, but provided without a REPSE registration or without the other requirements. |
| Simulated subcontracting | Perfect paperwork, different reality: in fact the workers carry out the client's main activity, «aún y cuando de manera documental no se advertía dicha situación» (even though the documents did not show it). |
| Violations of general working conditions | Of the assigned staff: access to social security, contributions, payment of wages. This is the category where IMSS registrations, the SUA and the payroll receipts that the inspector counts per person belong. |
Simulated subcontracting is the reason for the walkthroughs and interviews: documents alone never rule out simulation, and the main activity is assessed at the workplace, not only in the articles of incorporation.
What follows if they find something
A finding in an inspection opens an administrative sanction procedure (the fines of 2,000 to 50,000 UMA are in the guide to fines). A finding in a verification visit opens the REPSE registration-cancellation procedure, which ends either with the file being closed or with immediate removal from the registry. The two procedures can run in parallel: answering one does not close the other. Before cancelling, the STPS grants a window to submit supplementary information (información complementaria): five working days (REPSE Acuerdo, article 15, last paragraph) in which a file already in place is the difference between defending yourself with documents or with promises.
What this means in practice
The whole protocol points to the same operational conclusion: the compliance file has to exist before the visit. Without prior notice there is no time to assemble it; with the list handed over at the door, every empty section is recorded under oath; and with electronic delivery allowed, a company that keeps its file up to date can hand the inspector, during the visit itself, the documents that support its compliance. None of this guarantees the outcome of the inspection; it prevents a document from being presumed missing.