Representatives of the principal business associations and workers? unions drew up a proposal for a social agreement that is also an agreement to discuss pay raises for workers in order to face the rising cost of living and the diminished purchasing power of the Dominican peso. As reported in El Caribe, Virgilio Ortega Nadal, the president of the Employers? Confederation, told the press that these talks seek to find a solution to the problems affecting the employees and salaried personnel of the industrial and business sectors. Mariano Negron, the president of the National Council of Syndicated Unions, explained that the workers need to recover the purchasing power lost in the currency devaluation, and this can only come about through a general, across-the-board increase in salaries.
Monsignor Agripino Nunez Collado also called for salary adjustments. As reported in Hoy, the coordinator of the National Dialogue urged those businesses that are able to raise wages to do so, and he exhorted the government to stop the devaluation of the peso before applying the new tax reforms. In his comments, the rector of the Pontifical Catholic University Madre y Maestra also reminded the business community of the Labor Code in effect and warned of converting the discussions on the new tax proposals into a political circus. Nunez Collado, appearing on the television show Hoy Mismo (Today), reminded his interviewers that during the recent visit by Under Secretary John Taylor of the US Treasury Department,
the economist brought a message to the government, the business community and the incoming government officials that a political arrangement must be found on these issues and there must be a certain degree of acceptance by the people. The meeting between the union leaders and the business community took place behind closed doors at the offices of the Industrial Association of the Dominican Republic (AIRD). Both parties favor an immediate pay raise, but have not yet agreed on the amount or how it would be scaled. The union leaders are asking for a 60% pay raise, but the Employers? Confederation wants to leave the exact amount in the hands of each business unit. Both groups are anxious to keep the salary discussions out of the National Congress, according to reporter Candida Acosta of the Listin Diario.