The Baja California Sur state government announced that 107 workers at the state’s Centro de Desarrollo Infantil (CENDI) childcare centers will receive 24.17 million pesos (roughly $1.2 million USD) in overdue wages on Thursday. The payment resolves months of unpaid salaries at the federally funded centers in La Paz and San Carlos.
José Saúl González Núñez, the BCS Secretary General of Government, said the funds were secured after direct negotiations with Mexico’s federal Secretary of Public Education, Mario Delgado Carrillo. The total disbursement comes to 24,178,122.74 pesos, covering all outstanding salary debts owed to CENDI staff.
Nearly Four Months Without Pay
The payment comes after CENDI workers in La Paz and San Carlos went nearly four months without receiving their salaries. According to reporting by El Sudcaliforniano, the 107 employees, including psychologists, nutritionists, educators, and physical education teachers, continued working throughout the crisis to maintain services for more than 360 children in their care.
Mercedes Maciel Ortiz, the director general of CENDI in Baja California Sur, told the newspaper it had become “impossible” to keep asking staff to show up daily when they had to pay for gasoline and transportation out of pocket. CENDI has operated in BCS for 16 years, though the national program is three decades old.
State Stepped In With Emergency Loan
Before the federal funds were released, the BCS state government advanced one month of the owed wages as an internal loan to bridge the gap while federal budget authorization remained pending. The move was meant to provide some relief to workers who had gone weeks without income.
González Núñez said the federal funds have already been transferred to the state government. Workers should see the payments clear in their bank accounts by Thursday, with the brief delay attributed to standard interbank processing times.
The payroll dispute is part of a recurring pattern at CENDI centers in BCS, where federal funding delays at the start of each fiscal year leave workers unpaid for extended periods. The BCS governor is credited with personally coordinating with federal authorities to unlock this round of funding.
This story was first reported by the Baja California Sur state government press office at bcs.gob.mx, with additional reporting from El Sudcaliforniano.