Domestic Help.......

POP Bad Boy

Bronze
Jun 27, 2004
984
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........we've been having a few discussions with expats in the area and noone seems to really understand the requirements for domestic help.....

Some of the questions that come to mind are:

1. Is domestic help (and we are talking domestic, ie: maid, cook, landscape, handyman etc at personal residence) entitled to liquidation pay?

2. What is considered FULL TIME.... If an expat is not here all the time and these employees work FULL TIME when they are here and only check on things when they are away and are paid 1/2 of the wage with no required hours to be worked.... is that considered FULL or PART time?

3. What is the vacation that is required for domestic help and can the time that they do not work but you pay them 1/2 be considered vacation time?

4. Can you base their wage on a US$ and then pay them according to what the peso is as long as it is higher than the minimum wage required by law?

ALSO, does anyone know where you can find the law regarding domestic help?

Thanks......... there's about 4 of us fighting over this with differing opinions!
 

GringoCArlos

Retired Ussername
Jan 9, 2002
1,416
40
0
LONG post

1. YES. Domestic employees are entitled to severance pay by the Labor Code.

2.Fulltime is considered as 44 hours per week, whether they work that schedule or not. If their employer is here for 3 months and the employee receives full pay, and then the employer is gone for 3 months and the employee receives half pay for less work, etc, it doesn't matter.

When you are determining the average daily rate for severance pay, (assuming when they began working for you, and they agreed to this plan (considered to be the Labor contract) you total up the money earned by the employee in the past 12 months, then divide by 12 to get an AVERAGE monthly rate, and then divide by 23.83 to get the average DAILY rate they have earned for the past 12 months. All severance money is based on either the average Daily rate , and the average MONTHLY rate in the case of the Christmas bonus.)

3. Vacation pay for domestics is based on the time spent in your employ. (the periods are 0 to 3 months, 3 to 6 months, 6 months to 1 year, and then the number of years after that point.)

If you want to consider they use vacation time when you are away, you must pay them the average daily rate per vacataion day, and not 1/2 pay as you suggest.

4. This would work a lot better if the tasa kept rising but that has proven to be a false assumption. If you can get the employee to agree to this, fine, as long as they receive more than the minimum required by current law.

You can find all of this information in a book on D.R. Labor Law. (in Spanish). The Labor department also has a website, including a calculator for severance pay. You just plug and chug, and they provide the amounts you must pay. } YES, once I get the URL, I will edit and add this here}

Here are some guidelines (although I have to check my book to make sure the numbers are correct>

TOTAL SEVERANCE PAY = Severance Pay + Vacation days owed + Christmas Bonus + last unpaid workdays since their last payday

Severance Pay< Less than 3 months - 0 days pay owed
< 3 months to 6 months worked - 6 days pay owed
< 6 months to 1 year worked - 13 days pay owed
< 1 year - 21 days owed.

(an example- your maid worked for 1 year 7 months 3 days, you would owe ( 21 days PLUS 13 days = total this category of 34 days pay)

Vacation pay < less than 3 months - 0 Days pay owed
<3 months to 6 months - 8 days pay owed

( I need to check these numbers)

<1 year - 14 days owed (14 BUSINESS days, not calendar
days)

Christmas Bonus = number of months worked THIS YEAR.
=================
Example = Juanita started working for you on April 20, 2004. You fired her on November 25, 2004. She worked 11 days in April, May, June, July, August, September, October and 25 days in November. Therefore in the Labor formula, she worked 7 months, 0 weeks, and 6 days for you.

She would be entitled to-
13 days of severance pay + 8 (??) days vacation {Don't worry, I will check this and edit in a day or 2} + 8/12 of a month's average pay for Christmas bonus.

If she DID work part=time as you suggested, and she had received payroll like this example{ April, May, and the month of June you were here, and paid her $1100 in April, $3000 in May and June. Then you went back to Scotland for 3 months and paid her 1/2 for this time, that is $1500 for July, August, and September, and then you came back to the DR. She received $3000 for October, and you paid her $1500 on the 15th of November.

She has received $16,100 plus the days you owe her (16 through 25 November)

Divide this number by 7 to get the average monthly pay. (yes this result is actually a teensy bit high, because of the extra 6 days, but the difference is minute) Her average monthly pay would then be $2300. Then divide the $2300 by 23.83 (as stipulated by the Labor Code) and you get RD$96.52 as her average DAILY rate.

She is entitled to> 13 days severance pay X $96.52 PLUS
8 days vacation pay X $96.52 PLUS
Christmas bonus of 8/12 X $2300 = $1533.33 PLUS
10 days work owed X $96.52 = $965.20
EQUALS a total owed to Juanita of $4525.45.

NO, you don't have to pay her the minute you fire her. Probably better anyway to wait a few days and call her to come get it. No tears or anger when you pay her off that way, just "Adios" and get on with your life.