Lawyer Carlos Hernandez Contreras writes the labor issues column in Hoy newspaper. In his 17 January 2023 column, he rejects the recently passed domestic help resolution by the Ministry of Labor that calls for families to formalize their relationship with their domestic help.
In his column he responds to those who say that the resolution is illegal because the Ministry of Labor first should have submitted the draft to the National Congress for passing as a law, not a resolution. Hernandez says the government has overreached itself by legislating through an administrative resolution instead of a law. He warns families may face difficult financial situations if they go ahead with registering their domestic help. He says the resolution equals the legal regime of domestic workers to that of businesses.
Hernandez Contreras observes:
“There are ILO [International Labor Organization] conventions with explicit provisions. For example, 183, which establishes maternity leave for 14 weeks, without the need to legislate internally. However, this is not the case with Convention 189, for domestic workers, which subjects practically everything to changes in domestic legislation.
“The ILO itself, in its “Procedural Manual on Conventions” (2019 edition) points out that even in countries where the Constitution gives the conventions the force of law, it is essential to adapt the clauses to domestic legislation. And that task, according to the Principle of Legality, corresponds to the National Congress and no one else.
“These resolutions seek to equalize the legal regime of domestic workers to the general regime provided for in the TC for those working in businesses and companies. For example, with the provisions of Paragraph II of Art. 1 of the Resolution of the Ministry of Labor, a registration obligation is created in charge of the owner of the household, thus extending the presumption of Art. 16 of the TC. This will cause many households to be condemned to hundreds of thousands (and even millions) only based on what the worker alleges.
“And by way of consequence, the famous Art. 539 of the TC will be applied to Dominican households, which prevents appealing labor sentences, unless double the amount of the sentence is deposited in a bank.
“The social reality of the Dominican family and households is being ignored. This is a serious mistake.”
Read more in Spanish:
Consultorio Laboral
Diario Libre
17 January 2023