Social Security system ? some specific advice please?

whirleybird

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Feb 27, 2006
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My 2 workers are a husband and wife team. Their two roles can loosely be described as Farm Hand and Domestic houseworker. Farm hand works 5.5 days per week. Houseworker works 9 am to 3 pm x 4 days a week (lunch provided). They live in a small casita on the property.

I am a private owner of the property, i.e. there is no Company/ Corporation.

Neither I, nor they, are currently enrolled in the Social Security system and I am seeking to change this arrangement but I have received some confusing advice and instructions on how to proceed.

My questions are:

1. Do I need to register first and, if so, how and where do I do this?

2. How do I register the two workers?

3. What are the costs to me and to them?

4. I have been given to understand that the Health cover provided by the SS system is inadequate, particularly for the north coast area as many of the medical facilities do not accept the SS health cover. Can I/ we opt out of this area and secure medical cover with one of the general health providers, i.e. Monumental, Universal, Humano etc. and pay a premium to the health company rather than the SS. If so, how would this work and would the two arrangements be linked?

5. Does the SS system cover Accidents at work and TP liability?

6. How does the Incapacity/ Retirement part of the SS system benefit me/ them?

I would appreciate the experiences of other members of the Forums but also request a definitive answer from Mr. Guzman ? many thanks.
 

DMV123

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Mar 31, 2010
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I am not sure how or if you can register your employees as coverable employees with having a corporation. You may be better off to open them a savings account each and deposit some money monthly to cover their retirement savings. AND go purchase private medical coverage for them via one of the insurance companies. The mandatory gov't coverage is 500,000 and is meant to cover emergencies and accidents. It does not cover routine medical care. A decent policy will run about 900RD a month for each of them.

The gov't programs do cover accidents at work via the mandatory insurance and funding formula for salary loss but I do not understand it in depth. Sorry I do not know what TP liability is.

Again I think your first stumbling block is not being a company, not sure you can register at all. You need an RNC.
 

whirleybird

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Feb 27, 2006
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Thanks for your response DMV123. I am sure that there must be others in a similar position to myself who have registered themselves and their employees with SS but seems that no-one is sharing.....

Would really appreciate an opinion/ comment from Mr. Guzman on this one.
 

whirleybird

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Feb 27, 2006
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In the light of this quote taken from today's DR1 News, perhaps I could again request comments/ advice re my initial post please:

"A Labor Court has ordered a family to pay RD$10,000 in compensation to each of their four household employees for not registering them in the social security health regime. The court ordered the family that employed four men to pay the vacation time, Christmas wage in addition to the compensation for failing to register them in the health program."
 

AnnaC

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Jan 2, 2002
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Shirley while you're waiting you may want to check out this thread http://www.dr1.com/forums/legal/42156-overview-dominican-labor-law.html written by Mr Guzman.


Scroll down till you get to this part
7.2. Social Security

The Dominican Social Security system established by Law No. 87-01 contemplates insurance for health and labor risks and an incapacity/retirement fund, to be funded by salary-based contributions to be made by both employee and employer in the proportions described below.


Hope that helps
 

whirleybird

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Feb 27, 2006
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Thank you for that link, Anna, and I did actually have that printed out but, as I know certain things have changed, I would like some answers for 2011 rather than rely on information from 2005 as I am sure you will understand.
 

dulce

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Jan 1, 2002
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This statement is the botom line of the DR1 article today:

"The social security service penalty is a new requirement that had not been specified in the Labor Code in the chapter for domestic help and will now become regularly requested of employers in the future. "
I read this to mean that it is not written into the Labor Code yet but because the employees in this case won that it may be in the future.
 

Fabio J. Guzman

DR1 Expert
Jan 1, 2002
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www.drlawyer.com
Although the Social Security law 87-01 does not specifically categorize or include "domestic workers" anywhere, the courts have ruled that domestic workers are included based on the Principle of Universality established in Article 3 of Law #87-01 (“El SDSS deber? proteger a todos los dominicanos y a los residentes en el pa?s, sin discriminaci?n por raz?n de salud, sexo, condici?n social, pol?tica o econ?mica”), and on Article 5 of the Law stating that "all Dominican citizens and legal residents in the country" will benefit from the system.
 

whirleybird

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Feb 27, 2006
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Although the Social Security law 87-01 does not specifically categorize or include "domestic workers" anywhere, the courts have ruled that domestic workers are included based on the Principle of Universality established in Article 3 of Law #87-01 (“El SDSS deber? proteger a todos los dominicanos y a los residentes en el pa?s, sin discriminaci?n por raz?n de salud, sexo, condici?n social, pol?tica o econ?mica”), and on Article 5 of the Law stating that "all Dominican citizens and legal residents in the country" will benefit from the system.

Thank you for clarifying the ongoing queries in many people's minds with regard to how we should treat our domestic workers. Would it also be possible to prevail upon you to answer the more specific questions I raised in my original post which started this thread?

Many thanks in advance.
 

DMV123

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Mar 31, 2010
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I am sure interested in this as well as I fight to get a companies employees registered. Even with a fully legalized company it is a bloody nightmare trying to work your way thru the system!!!!
 

Acira

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Sep 20, 2009
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www.blazingfuries.com
I am sure interested in this as well as I fight to get a companies employees registered. Even with a fully legalized company it is a bloody nightmare trying to work your way thru the system!!!!

How should I interpreted this? Do you act as some kind of liaison between employees and employers, HR maybe? Or is it the system that is so hard to wrestle through?
Just a question from me out of interest.
 

DMV123

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Mar 31, 2010
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LOL I am a licensed official employee wrestler. Some use unions,others use me........

It is the system, you need to jump thru all these hoops and run from one department of the government to the next and file even more paperwork and continuously pay stupid fees to get the set up done so you can register employees with the government. Bloody hell - if you could take the paperwork to the department, file it , pay the fee once instead of 13 times and get it done. They are inept, inefficient and NOT helpful.

Seriously, once the opening of a company is done - it can take 2 to 3 months to get set up with DGII, ITBIS and register employees with the TSS. RIDICULOUS.
 

Acira

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Sep 20, 2009
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www.blazingfuries.com
LOL I am a licensed official employee wrestler. Some use unions,others use me........

It is the system, you need to jump thru all these hoops and run from one department of the government to the next and file even more paperwork and continuously pay stupid fees to get the set up done so you can register employees with the government. Bloody hell - if you could take the paperwork to the department, file it , pay the fee once instead of 13 times and get it done. They are inept, inefficient and NOT helpful.

Seriously, once the opening of a company is done - it can take 2 to 3 months to get set up with DGII, ITBIS and register employees with the TSS. RIDICULOUS.

Thanks DMV. I follow your posts on matters like this with great interest, they are always very helpful and informative.
Good luck with further wrestling and keep us posted :)
 

DMV123

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Mar 31, 2010
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Thanks. I think I will start a thread and post my experiences step by step on this one. And when I am done I will either take up mud wrestling or jello wrestling..............
 

whirleybird

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Feb 27, 2006
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One more 'bump' to this thread to still try to get some definitive answers to my original questions please...
 

Fabio J. Guzman

DR1 Expert
Jan 1, 2002
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y questions are:

1. Do I need to register first and, if so, how and where do I do this? See a recent post on this.

2. How do I register the two workers? See a recent post on this

3. What are the costs to me and to them?See my overview on labor law in the sticky

4. I have been given to understand that the Health cover provided by the SS system is inadequate, particularly for the north coast area as many of the medical facilities do not accept the SS health cover. Can I/ we opt out of this area and secure medical cover with one of the general health providers, i.e. Monumental, Universal, Humano etc. and pay a premium to the health company rather than the SS. If so, how would this work and would the two arrangements be linked? You cannot opt out of the system, which in our experience has worked more or less. Remember that each worker is affiliated through a private health provider such as Universal, Humano, etc.

5. Does the SS system cover Accidents at work and TP liability? Yes.

6. How does the Incapacity/ Retirement part of the SS system benefit me/ them? You get a private account at the private provider of your choice where your contributions are deposited every month. Every month you get statements showing how much money you have in your account. You can withdraw the funds upon retirement.

I would appreciate the experiences of other members of the Forums but also request a definitive answer from Mr. Guzman ? many thanks.
 

whirleybird

Silver
Feb 27, 2006
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Thank you for your specific replies, Mr. Guzman.

Can anyone help by posting the links to the questions relating to registration (1 & 2) as I have used the search function but am still at a loss to find the required threads and answers.