Unemployment / Workers Liquidation

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djdaveq

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May 18, 2019
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Hi Everyone,

I have a question about a worker that I had working for me until today. I’m in American tourist here on vacation and I had a Haitian guy working on my land just taking care of the grass and pulling out the weeds and things like that. He worked for me for about 4 1/2 years I paid him in cash each week equivalent of 500 pesos a day or 12,000 pesos a month. He worked 5 hours a day. We are located in Las Terennas and Samana. Anyway we never had any kind of contract ..never anything in writing ever ..and now we have agreed that he’s going to stop working for me. He went to the office of the workers and gave me a paper saying that I have to pay him a liquidation fee which is like unemployment i

Basically my main concern is because we never had a contract and also because I am not a business I am just a private individual and he’s just cleaning the grass.

Anyway I talk to the guy a little bit and he said he’ll take a compromise he said he’ll take 50,000 pesos Instead of 86,000. instead of 86,000.

So my question is ..is this legal?

Do I need to pay this?

How much time do I have to pay this? how many days months? Etc.

Since he offered me a compromise of 50,000 pesos is there anything that I need to do to sort of make it legitimate that he is excepting 50,000 to close the case so that he can I try to come back at me later on and say I didn’t pay them completely? Or so he can’t say I didn’t pay him at all? I can send the money by Carribe express so it’s documented.

Anybody who can offer me any advice on this would be greatly appreciated.

I am attaching a photo of the paper that he gave me but I have blocked out the names.

view document here:
Document from Minestro De Trabajo

Thank hou
 
AlterEgo

AlterEgo

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Interesting. When our gardener left after years, he went to the office with Mr AEs brother. The woman there said he was a domestic employee, and was only due prorated 13th month and vacation. We voluntarily gave him more, but he was very angry because he expected 80-100,000 pesos.

The woman explained that because we don’t operate a business, don’t sell our crops, no income at all, there is no liquidation due.

This was a few years ago, not sure if anything has changed since.

I recommend you go to the office yourself.
 
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djdaveq

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May 18, 2019
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Wow that
AlterEgo said:
Interesting. When our gardener left after years, he went to the office with Mr AEs brother. The woman there said he was a domestic employee, and was only due prorated 13th month and vacation. We voluntarily gave him more, but he was very angry because he expected 80-100,000 pesos.

The woman explained that because we don’t operate a business, don’t sell our crops, no income at all, there is no liquidation due.

This was a few years ago, not sure if anything has changed since.

I recommend you go to the office yourself.
Click to expand...

wow that’s very interesting. I’ll take that under advisement
 
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djdaveq

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May 18, 2019
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Does it affect the matter if he quits or I fire him? Right now we kinda in a lingo.
 
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Sol09

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Jan 12, 2017
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AlterEgo said:
I believe the vacation and 13th month proration still applies, maybe someone from the legal team will weigh in.
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Yes those still apply and need to be paid as they are derechos adquiridos under the law.
 
bob saunders

bob saunders

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william webster said:
Quitting = ZERO payment
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Even if he quits he is still entitled to a portion of the 13th salary. Now that the time has come for the teachers to back to work, although only as virtual teachers we have a couple that are trying to get fired so they can get that big severance payout. They haven't worked since March but have been getting paid.
 
Buffness

Buffness

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CristoRey said:
This story is a very common one.
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True.

A similar thing happened to us a few years back .... similar scenario...no written contract etc ....and our options at the time were ....1. Pay ...not because of the “liquidation fee” document ...but .. ‘just because’ or ... 2. Do nothing...wait ...and see how things play out ....

We chose to wait , mainly because the amount on “liquidation fee” document was ridiculously high ....and at the time, our Dominican neighbor with a fully fledged company, had let his 5 workers go without a flinch . ....and yet , not one “liquidation fee “ document from any of the workers.

In our case , Alas ! after two months of nothing happening , the “liquidation fee” was substantially reduced....and we eventually paid an amount we were both happy with.....with very little or no reference to the “liquidation fee“ document “ .
 
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LindseyKaufman

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Aug 21, 2007
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Maybe I am a fool. But I always pay the proper amount of liquidation. Why? Over the years I have been in the position to offer employment back to several of these employees that I previously released. For me, it is not about the money. (Although it IS about the money for them!) For me, it is about ending relationships on a positive note. I do not know what the future will bring and these very individuals may come to my rescue.

Just the other day, I passed an old gardener on the road. I fired him about 14 years ago. He still always hails me down, tells me about where he is currently working and how is life is going. He always ends by saying if I ever need his help again, to just call.

That is just one reason why I pay liquidation. I never know.
 
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william webster

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bob saunders said:
Even if he quits he is still entitled to a portion of the 13th salary. Now that the time has come for the teachers to back to work, although only as virtual teachers we have a couple that are trying to get fired so they can get that big severance payout. They haven't worked since March but have been getting paid.
Click to expand...

Right Bob.... no liquidation, just the employee's share of vacation pay and December double

We shouldn't confuse the two

All this talk about no contract..... I haven't seen too many contracts for 'domestics' or casual labor.
Let's ask a restaurant owner how many contracted employees he has
 
melphis

melphis

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I can offer 2 bits of good advice.#1 Get a lawyer who specializes in this. #2 read the first bit of advice.
The laws here are like a roulette wheel that you throw darts at. It changes daily and is decide by whoever is in charge that day.
A good lawyer can filter through the crap.
 
JD Jones

JD Jones

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rogerjac said:
I think it depends on how much tip he paid at the Minister of trabajo
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The reason that document exists is to provide an honest answer to how much is owed an employee if you let them go.
All of the information required to reach that amount is clearly stated on the document, so there are no shenanigans going on there.
The OP's position is they agreed to termination; the employee's position is he was fired.
I agree with the employee - he probably would have stayed forever if you hadn't "agreed" to the termination.
Having said all of that, as AE said in post no. 2 this guy was a gardener so he is only entitled to the prorated 13th month and vacation.
I also agree with Lindsey's position. When I let my guy go after 6 years I told him to go to the Ministerio de Trabajo and have them calculate what he was owed and I paid him that amount.
It was a huge amount of money for him (not to me) and to this day he still calls me occasionally to ask me how I am and wish me well.
I'd rather have them remember me as a good person than to be remembered as a "tacaño"
 
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william webster

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Actually, I think there is a calculator on the website..... DIY thing

No shenanigans at all - straightforward math
 
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