Dominican unions and businesses are meeting face to face today, Monday 25 March, in what will be the fifth meeting of the two sectors in their search for an agreement on salary increases for private employees. With this in mind, workers’ representatives will arrive at Dominican Republic Management Confederation (Copardom) offices at 8am where they will await a counterproposal from the business sector. At previous meetings, they had proposed a 30% increase for minimum wage earners and a 25% increase for workers who earn more. This suggestion was rejected by the business sector, according to CNUS president Rafael (Pepe) Abreu.
If the management sector does not come up with a “reasonable” proposal, the unions will go before the National Salary Committee on Wednesday, 27 March to ask them to convene both parties for a joint session. “If today’s proposal from them is reasonable, we are willing to continue meeting until we reach an agreement that that, when we arrive at the National Salary Committee, all that’s left to do is legalize it,” said Abreu in an interview with Diario Libre. Rafael Abreu said that the average family economic basket is RD$26,000 a month, according to figures from the Central Bank, and the highest minimum wage in the country is barely RD$9,000.