Here is one for the Expats living here in the DR?

Morally speaking...

I understand the situation you are in and no I don't know the prices of footing the bill at a clinic for this sort of thing. BUT since she has worked for you for 3 years and you know she is only making commission, don't you feel a little obligated to help foot the bill in good faith if she has been a good and faithful employee to you - even if you are not obligated to do this? I don't know if you can afford it but certainly if you can, I would look beyond what your legal responsibilities are.

Gringo,

This should be in the Legal section. You want a legal opinion from Fabio, not the those of the expats. Fiesta Mama's post is an example of what you are going to get in this section and it will be followed by opinions of others that don't agree with her. Fabio is the man you want to hear from.

I suggest you start a new thread with your question in the Legal section. Fabio does not go looking for legal questions in the other sections.

It's never happenned to me but, I have heard that having an employee get pregnant is bad for an employer, basically they get alot of time off at full pay.

Haven't heard anything about medical benefits.

I don't think Dominican labor law recognizes such a thing as commision only employment, if she has been paid regularly by you , then you will be responsible to continue paying her a similar amount during a good portion of her pregnancy and some time afterwards.

Firing a pregnant employee is REALLY BAD. Don't do it.

Pardon the intrusion but...

Since shes on commission only and won't soon be able to do any work, therefore make no $, could be that there's little resource to cover the expence of having a baby and care thereafter. This may be a dire situation she's in and may be grasping at straws to make do untill able to work again. It's doubtful she has any legal stance, but won't you help her anyway? Do so as a humanitarian gesture. Maybe a few $ won't break you and it will do her a world of good! Who knows, you may gain a grateful and faithful employee who may someday repay you in kind!!....She may even name the baby after you!

MrMike said:

Firing a pregnant employee is REALLY BAD. Don't do it.

Click to expand...

It is illegal! But maybe that's what you meant for "bad".

This employee was supposed to have had some health coverage, either private or social security-based. If she didn't then the employer was at fault, so I suppose that's where the "pay for the medical costs comes". Furthermore, regardless of how you paid her she is still an employee, as such she is entitled to the same protections under the law as any other employee, which means that she'll get 3 months off at the end of her pregnancy in which she'll receive her full salary. You can not fire her now or until she returns to work.

This is based on my experience dealing with personnel and should not be inferred as legal advice since we already have Fabio for that.

Edited to add:
We had employees that earned part of their salary based on commissions. To pay the X-mas bonus we had to add the last 12 months of his commissions, divided by 12 and that would be considered as part of the employee's salary. I don't know in your case how that would work, but commissions is salary. Another vote for wait for Fabio.

And get thee a copy of the Labor code. Pronto!

I heard of a case once...

Where a commission only salesperson was working in a store that hired more salespeople, so his sales volume decreased and therefore his commission.

His employer was required to pay him severance based on his old average earnings even though the employee stayed at work.

So I do not think the law takes the fact that earnings are commission based into consideration, rather an average of total pay over the space of the total employment period is taken and a daily rate is established based on this average for purposes such as pregnancy and severance pay, etc.

I have also learned that Dominican law considers that employees work an average of 23.5 days per month.

So you would take for example the employees total amount of months working for you, and the total amount you have paid them and base your average on this.

example:

Jenny has worked for you for 16 months. during which time you have paid her a total of 160,000 pesos. So for legal purposes, Jenny makes 10k pesos a month regardless of whether this was salary or commission.

Do you have a ballpark figure of how much money the clinic treatment and delivery will cost?
TEHAMA

Commisioned employees

Commisinioned employees are treated the same as salary or hourly employees whereas in the case of benifits, navidad, prestaciones o el bonificaciones.

Employer is responsible to make the nessesary deductions and payments for AFP, Seguro Social etc.

Private health insurance as well as orther perks are between the employer and employee, although if you give to one you must give to all in respect to their position, which is to say if you offer to one supervisor and you have five you must give to the five the same benefits, but not the laberors.

If you have not been making the required contributions to the Seguro social for this person it may be in your best interst to do so inmediatly, sometimes you could make the past due payments to be in compliance but this would be required to be done for all employees if you have not been doing so.

Regardless this woman will have the right and you have the obligation to pay her for the 3 monthes of time she will have off plus after she returns to work she will have rights to time off for the baby and doctor visits which you must compensate her accordingly.

If this requires clarification I would be happy to cite at a later time article and paragraph from the Codigo de Trabajo.

Must be off to work right now, hasta luego.