Minister of Labor Miguel de Camps explained the amendments that have been harmonized with labor and business during the La Semanal weekly press conference on Monday, 26 August 2024. The harmonized amendments will be presented soon to Congress. The government seeks to modernize the Labor Code that has not been updated since it was published in 1992.
Labor Minister Luis Miguel De Camps noted the changes seek to address the pressing challenges in the labor market. The amendments include provisions for remote work, the enhancement of worker protections, and the fostering of a more productive and competitive business environment.
Key provisions of the proposed Labor Code reform:
Remote work: The reform introduces regulations for remote work, aiming to attract new talent and accommodate modern work styles.
Paternity leave: Consensus was reached for the doubling of paternity leave from two to four days for fathers that are included in the child’s birth certificate. Women in the Dominican Republic are given 14 weeks of maternity leave.
The Chamber of Deputies has already approved a bill that would increase paternity leave to 10 days but requires that the father notify his company with 30 days in advance. The bill was sent to committee in the Senate.
Vacation time: The proposal is to extend vacations for those who have been in the same job for three years to 15 working days from 14 days, or almost three weeks of vacations.
Improved Labor Relations: The reform seeks to streamline labor dispute resolution processes and reduce frivolous lawsuits.
Domestic workers’ rights: The government has committed to improving working conditions for domestic workers in alignment with International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention 189. The Ministry of Labor had already approved the amendments that favor domestic workers, but the Constitutional Court sentenced that the Ministry could not rule above the Labor Code. The amendments, thus, would be made to incorporate the changes in the Labor Code.
80/20 foreign labor rule: Amendments were harmonized to enable better enforcement of the provision that establishes companies are allowed to hire 20% of their labor force from foreign employees. The difficulties of Haitians not having identity papers was raised during the presentation. President Luis Abinader said that the Haitian government under assassinated Jovenel Moise had agreed to step up issuing identity papers for people in Haiti.
The lack of documentation creates major issues for regularizing the situation of these people when they migrate seeking jobs in the Dominican Republic. The attitude of governments in Haiti over the past decades has been not to identify those born in Haiti or of Haitian parents and leave this human rights problem to the Dominican Republic where hundreds of thousands of Haitians have migrated seeking the jobs and livelihood they do not find in Haiti. The identity issues have been consistently ignored by international organizations.
De Camps emphasized that the reform has been developed through extensive consultations with representatives from the government, labor unions, and employers’ associations, including the Corporación Autónoma Sindical Clasista (CASC), the Confederación Nacional de Unidad Sindical (CNUS), the Confederación Nacional de Trabajadores Dominicanos (CNTD), and the business associations — Copardom, Asonahores, ONEC, Conep, ACIS, AIRD, Codopyme, ANJE, and Adozona.
Read more in Spanish:
La Semanal 26 August press conference
Presidency
Diario Libre
Diario Libre
Diario Libre
27 August 2024