NewsWhore
04-13-2011, 05:20 PM
Discussions about an increase in the minimum wage for workers "are now at a standstill" and the National Committee on Salaries will call for a third meeting after Easter Week. Rafael "Pepe" Abreu, the president of the CNUS union confederation and spokesman for the other unions, said that the negotiations are on hold, but the Employers' Confederation of the Dominican Republic (Copardom) have denied this.
Abreu said that they will be staging a demonstration in San Pedro de Macoris today, another in Barahona and the day after tomorrow there will be another in Puerto Plata, Azua and San Francisco de Macoris. They are also planning a mass demonstration on 1 May (Labor Day). They are setting up an alliance with community and professional groups with the aim of reversing the business sector's stance on an increase in the minimum wage, and it is expected that the Congress will hurry up with the legislative proposal that is currently in the Senate.
Abreu told Diario Libre that Copardom's proposed 11.58% increase to the highest of the minimum wages, which is nearly RD$8,000 a month, represents an additional RD$1,300, but the other minimum wages would receive RD$500 and RD$600 more a month. Therefore the offer does not move any of salary scales in the country and just one item, transport, would eat up all the wage increase.
Copardom president Jaime Gonzalez said that the excessive increase the unions are demanding could lead to "labor anarchy" in the country, taking into account that 56% of all labor here is in the informal sector. He said that with the proposal for the minimum wage, the management sector was seeking to protect the 78% of employers that are micro- and small-businesses and he insisted that to go beyond the minimum is outside of the law. At the same time he denied that negotiations were at an impasse. He said that the third call for a meeting of the National Salary Committee would be issued after Holy Week.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#5)
Abreu said that they will be staging a demonstration in San Pedro de Macoris today, another in Barahona and the day after tomorrow there will be another in Puerto Plata, Azua and San Francisco de Macoris. They are also planning a mass demonstration on 1 May (Labor Day). They are setting up an alliance with community and professional groups with the aim of reversing the business sector's stance on an increase in the minimum wage, and it is expected that the Congress will hurry up with the legislative proposal that is currently in the Senate.
Abreu told Diario Libre that Copardom's proposed 11.58% increase to the highest of the minimum wages, which is nearly RD$8,000 a month, represents an additional RD$1,300, but the other minimum wages would receive RD$500 and RD$600 more a month. Therefore the offer does not move any of salary scales in the country and just one item, transport, would eat up all the wage increase.
Copardom president Jaime Gonzalez said that the excessive increase the unions are demanding could lead to "labor anarchy" in the country, taking into account that 56% of all labor here is in the informal sector. He said that with the proposal for the minimum wage, the management sector was seeking to protect the 78% of employers that are micro- and small-businesses and he insisted that to go beyond the minimum is outside of the law. At the same time he denied that negotiations were at an impasse. He said that the third call for a meeting of the National Salary Committee would be issued after Holy Week.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#5)