From reading the postings below, it is obvious that there is a lot of misinformation on this subject. Neither making a notarized statement of facts nor filing a complaint with the labor office will get any money into the fired employee?s pocket. All the labor office can do, in the final analysis, is to tell the employee to get a good labor lawyer and sue right away. The suit will prevent him from losing his rights under the very short statute of limitations in labor matters and, most important, will also get management to pay attention. Our firm represents many hotel operations and our advice to our clients, after they get sued, is usually to settle and not to fight. It just doesn?t make sense to pay expensive legal fees to defend a $1000 suit. Also, labor laws in the Dominican Republic are very protective of employees: not to pay an employee?s salary, for example, is a criminal offense; severance pay is mandatory after three months? service and must be paid within ten days after termination; the Labor Code states that the facts derived from the working relation between employer and employee have precedence over any written contract signed by the; a labor ruling vs. an employer can only be appealed if the employer deposits with the government double the amount of award.
There are many good labor lawyers who practice on the employees? side of labor litigation. As I have said, our firm takes the side of management, so we should know. Labor lawyers for employees normally take cases on a 30% contingency contract, the maximum allowed under Dominican law. The employee, therefore, does not have to put up a dime for his claim and the lawyer only gets paid if he wins.
