The president of the Dominican Republic Association of Industries (AIRD) Ligia Bonetti has warned that statistics show that three out of every four jobs in the Dominican Republic are in the informal sector. “This is a scary statistic. A statistic that only leads to an increasingly deepening and possibly irreversible crisis, in terms of economic growth and social welfare,” she said when speaking at a dinner celebrating the 51st anniversary of the CASC labor union. Her theme was productivity and sustainable development.
She highlighted the fact that informal companies and their workers do not pay taxes, do not register their assets, do not participate in the social security system, are not ruled by the Labor Code, do not use the formal credit system, and cannot demand their rights in the legal system, as reported in El Caribe.
She said that informality does not contribute to social development with taxes and thus benefits from subsidized transport, subsidized energy and infrastructure paid for by the formal sector.
She said that while informal jobs enable people to “survive,” the goal should not be survival, but rather a dignified and prosperous life that can only be guaranteed by the formal sector.
The AIRD president stressed that informality was unjust because it represents unfair competition and a threat to sustainable development.
She made the point that 65% of jobs were informal with the percentage growing every year. She said that there has been a 21% decline in jobs in the formal private sector in recent years.
Commenting on the causes of the increase in informal jobs and decline in formal jobs, she asked if it was a consequence of an economic model based on promoting services and imports and not the real sectors of the economy. She also said it could be an excess of taxation, or a weakness of our institutions that makes informality profitable and frees it of penalties. Bonetti also attributes this to the possibility of an excessively rigid labor code and advocated for a structural change focused on the industry.
www.elcaribe.com.do/2013/10/25/alarma-aird-alta-informalidad-del-empleo
http://informa-rse.blogspot.com/2013/10/de-prensa-ligia-bonetti-ante-la-casc.html