The upper crust of the nation’s business community, as represented by the National Business Council (Conep), warned yesterday, Wednesday 26 March that they would leave no stone unturned in pursuit of a Labor Code reform in order to promote formal employment in the Dominican Republic. As reported in Listin Diario, Conep president Manuel Diez Cabral pointed out that there has been a lot of talk about the Code in recent times, but “what is not said is that we have a Labor Code of minorities” and that local companies have a labor burden of 69% during the first year. According to Diez, for each peso that a company pays, they have to find an additional 69 cents to cover immediate charges and contingencies, and that these labor costs put a brake on the growth of real salaries.
In a speech to the bi-monthly luncheon of the Dominican Confederation of Small and Medium-sized Construction Companies (Copymecom), Diez said that the current Labor Code was “rigid” and “unbalanced” and that it was also one of the major causes of informal employment and the disappearance of thousands of businesses. He said that in the last 12 years, for every formal job created 14 were produced in the informal sector and 50% of posts held by women in the industrial sector have disappeared. He said that this is a sign of a damaged economy that is incapable of generating quality employment and greater productivity.