The law in the Dominican Republic (DR) makes no distinction between white-collar workers and blue-collar workers. Both groups are given the same treatment, except for overtime. Those in managerial and supervisory positions are not entitled to overtime.

There are three categories of employment contracts.

1. The permanent employment contract, which applies to so-called permanent employees of any company, and its main distinguishing feature is that it has no end date, and its second distinguishing feature is that it is more expensive (for an employer) than all other types of contracts, because it ultimately entails the payment of employment benefits (notice and severance pay) to the employee. In addition, during its term, it entails the payment of certain rights that are not present or are conditional in other employment contracts: vacation, Christmas bonus, and profit sharing.

2. The second category corresponds to so-called fixed-term employment contracts (also called “fixed-term” or temporary contracts), which are characterised by the fact that when they are agreed upon, the date or event that will lead to their termination is known. Therefore, in these employment contracts, when they end, the employer is not obliged to pay employment benefits (advance notice and severance pay) or the financial assistance provided for in Article 82 of the Labor Code. In addition, during the term of these contracts, there are rights that are not provided for or are conditional: the vacation entitlement provided for in Articles 179 and 180 of the Labor Code does not apply; the profit sharing provided for in Article 223 of the Labor Code does not apply; the Christmas bonus only applies if the contract exceeds six months; and annual vacations only apply if the contract extends to one year. These contracts are commonly referred to as “temporary” and are as follows.

• Contract for specific work or service (Articles 31 and 72 of the Labor Code) – this contract is used for specific work or service in a temporary project. For example, the installation of software that will require several months of implementation; and training in the use of a new operating system, which is expected to last only several months. The most common sector in which this contract is used is housing construction.
• Contract for annual seasonal work (Article 29 of the Labor Code) – this contract is used for work that is repeated each year on a scheduled date depending on the rhythm of the seasons (fruit picking during the agricultural harvest) or depending on the rhythm of the company’s commercial activities (Christmas season in retail; “high” tourist season in the hotel sector).
• Fixed-term employment contract (Article 33 of the Labor Code) – this contract is basically used to replace employees on sick leave, vacation, or temporary disability, or when it is in the interests of the worker.
• Contract for accidental and temporary needs (Article 32 of the Labor Code) – used “when the work is intended to temporarily intensify production or responds to accidental circumstances of the company, or its need ceases at a certain time.”

3. The third category of employment contracts are the so-called special employment contracts, which are subject to a special regime applicable to each one:

• agricultural workers;
• home workers;
• domestic workers;
• those relating to maritime transport;
• the work of minors;
• those relating to vocational training, apprentices and trainees;
• those relating to disabled persons; and
• those relating to flight crew in air transport.

All employment contracts that are not for an indefinite period must be in writing. In the case of foreign employees, the Ministry of Labor will require that the contract be in writing, even if the relationship is for an indefinite period; otherwise, a work visa will not be issued.

The “normal working day” applies to most employment contracts, except for persons and positions expressly excluded and except for those jobs and companies that are governed by special working hours, as permitted by the Labor Code or by the Ministry of Labor through express authorisation. This working day is governed by the following parameters.

• It is limited to eight hours per day and 44 hours per week. However, the law allows these limits to be exceeded on condition that the employer pays overtime for more than 44 hours as follows: “for each hour or fraction of an hour worked in excess of the working day with an increase of not less than 35% of the normal hourly rate.”
• Unless otherwise agreed by the parties, the working day “must be interrupted by an intermediate rest period, which may not be less than one hour after four consecutive hours of work and 1½ hours after five consecutive hours of work.” In practice, it is common for companies to interrupt the working day with a one-hour or 1½-hour lunch break, and in the industrial and free trade zones, in addition to the lunch break, two further breaks are added, one of 15 minutes in the middle of the morning and another of more than 15 minutes in the middle of the afternoon.
• Unless the parties choose a day other than Saturday, the weekly workday shall end at 12 noon on Saturday, followed by an uninterrupted weekly rest period of 36 hours, comprising part of the second half of Saturday and the entire Sunday.
• If the parties agree that the weekly rest period shall begin on a day other than Saturday, the following shall apply.

1. In the case of an employee who works from Tuesday to Sunday and has Mondays off, ending their workday on Sunday at 12:00 a.m. and returning to work on Tuesday at 2:00 p.m., their weekly rest period would be 38 hours, consisting of 24 hours on Monday + 14 hours on Tuesday.
2. In the case of an employee who works from Wednesday to Monday and has Tuesdays off, ending their workday on Monday at 10:00 p.m. and returning to work on Wednesday at 2:00 p.m., their weekly rest period would be 40 hours, consisting of two hours on Monday + 24 hours on Tuesday + 14 hours on Wednesday.
3. And let us assume the case of an employee who works Monday through Saturday and has Sunday off which is the most typical case ending their workday on Saturday at 6:00 p.m. and returning to work on Monday at 8:00 p.m. Their weekly rest would be 38 hours, consisting of 6 hours on Saturday + 24 hours on Sunday + 8 hours on Monday.
• In none of these cases is the increase provided for by law payable, as in all cases the 36 hours of weekly rest are exceeded.
• Nor are they obliged to pay double for work on Sundays, as they have legitimately set another day of the week for weekly rest.

The normal working day does not apply, unless otherwise agreed, to:

• workers acting as representatives or agents of the employer;
• workers in management or supervisory positions;
• workers in small rural establishments operated by members of the same family or by a single person;
• persons in positions of trust;
• workers who perform intermittent work or work that requires their presence at the workplace;
• workers employed in transport vehicles providing an intermittent service;
• workers employed in transport vehicles providing a service between two or more municipalities and whose work is remunerated by a fixed salary, per trip, or by another form of compensation;
• farm workers;
• maritime transport workers; or
• air transport flight crew.

The law allows for the normal limits of eight hours per day and 44 hours per week to be exceeded in the following cases.

• “In companies where work is continuous due to the nature of the work itself, staff must work in shifts of 8 hours. In these cases, the working day may be extended by 1 hour, but the weekly average may not exceed 50 hours in any case, with overtime paid for hours worked in excess of 44 hours per week.”
• “By agreement between the employer and their workers, continuous working hours may be established, provided that they do not exceed 10 hours per day in commercial activities and 9 hours in industrial activities, and in no case may the working week exceed 44 hours.”
• “For agricultural, industrial agricultural, livestock, or forestry companies, all provisions of this Code shall apply, with the exception of those relating to working hours... In any case, the working day shall not exceed 10 hours.”
• “Workers who perform intermittent work or whose presence is required at the workplace... These workers may not remain at their place of work for more than 10 hours per day.”
• “The working day of workers employed in transport vehicles providing intermittent services or between two or more municipalities may not exceed 10 hours per day or 60 hours per week.”

In relation to all these cases in which the law allows the normal working day to be exceeded, it should be clarified that in the first two cases (continuous operation companies and continuous working days) these are companies and workers subject to the ordinary working day and therefore subject to overtime pay when exceeding 44 hours per week.

This is not the case for the other cases, which are outside the scope of the ordinary working day, meaning that it does not matter if they exceed 44 hours and reach 60 hours, as in any case no overtime will have to be paid.

The other relevant clarification is that these limits of ten hours per day and 60 hours per week should in no way be interpreted as limits from which overtime begins to be calculated. Overtime will always be paid from 44 hours per week, with the increase provided for in Article 203 of the Labor Code.

The Minimum Wage

The minimum wage in accordance with Resolution CNS-01-2025, of the National Wage Committee, is as follows.

• Large companies – 151 workers and upwards or gross sales over DOP288,351,329.30, with a minimum salary of DOP27,988.80 as of 1 April 2025 and DOP29,988.00 as of 1 February 2026.
• Medium-size companies – 51 to 150 workers and gross sales of DOP288,351,329.30, with a minimum wage of DOP25,656.96 as of 1 April 2025 and DOP27,489.60 as of 1 February 2026.
• Small companies – 11 to 50 workers and gross sales of DOP77,084,018.72, with a minimum wage of DOP17,193.12 as of 1 April 2025 and DOP18,421.20 as of 1 February 2026.
• Micro-enterprises – up to ten workers and gross sales of DOP11,419,854.62, with a minimum salary of DOP15,860.32 as of 1 April 2025 and DOP16,993.20 as of 1 February 2026.
• Private vigilants (private security guards usually hired by companies) – minimum salary of DOP22,990.80 as of 1 April 2025 and DOP24,633.00 as of 1 February 2026.
• Farm workers – minimum daily wage for an eight-hour workday of DOP666.40 as of 1 April 2025 and DOP714.60 as of 1 February 2026.

The classification of companies according to their size is provided in Resolution 79-2025, on indexation of the annual gross sales value for the classification of companies, of the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and MSMEs (MICM), which is issued every year, in compliance with Law 488-08, which establishes the regulatory regime for MSMEs.

According to Article 2-Bis (as amended by Law 187-17) of Law 488-08, which establishes the regulatory regime for MSMEs, all institutions in the country – MT, TSS, DGII, etc – that implement regulations aimed at MSMEs, “shall [be classified] by size... established in... the present law.”

Minimum wage rates are reviewed every two years by the National Wage Committee, after consulting with the most representative employer and worker associations.

Participation in the Profits of the Company

According to Article 223 of the Labor and Employment Code, it is mandatory for every company to grant participation equivalent to 10% of the annual profits or net profits to all its workers for an indefinite period.

The individual participation of each employee may not exceed the equivalent of 45 days of ordinary salary for those who have served for less than three years, and 60 days of ordinary salary for those who have served for three or more years.

When the employee does not render services during the entire year corresponding to the fiscal year, the individual participation will be proportional to the salary of the time worked.

“The determination of the worker’s individual participation in the company’s profits shall be governed by the following rules:

a) If the employee has less than one year of continuous service, the total amount of ordinary wages earned in the months worked during the social or fiscal year of the company shall be divided by 12 and the quotient shall be divided by 23.83, and the result of this division shall be multiplied by 45.

b) If the employee has 1 year or more of continuous service in the company, but less than 3, the average daily salary will be multiplied by 45.

c) If the employee has 3 or more years of continuous service in the company, the rules established in Article 32 of these Regulations shall be applied and the average daily salary shall be multiplied by 60.

d) If the employee has 3 or more years of continuous service and for any reason the labor relationship is terminated, the total amount of ordinary salaries accrued in the months worked during the social or fiscal year of the company will be divided by 12 and the quotient will be divided by 23.83, and the result of this new division will be multiplied by 60.

e) If the company’s profits are not sufficient to cover the 45- or 60-day limit set by Article 223 of the Labor and Employment Code, the amount to be distributed shall be divided by the total amount that would have corresponded to the workers had the aforementioned limit been covered, and the quotient obtained shall be multiplied by the individual participation of each worker.”

Christmas Salary

The Christmas wage consists of one twelfth of the ordinary salary earned by the employee in the calendar year. And for its calculation and payment of overtime, night work, participation in the company’s profits, and any other extraordinary benefits are excluded.

Payment of the Christmas Salary will be made no later than 20 December, even if the contract of employment was terminated earlier and regardless of the cause of termination.

On the other hand, it must be considered that for the calculation of the Christmas salaries, the calendar year must be taken into consideration, and not the last year of service of the employee.

Thus, for example, if an employee started work on 30 October 2023, and their Christmas salary is payable in December 2024, they add what they have earned from 1 January to 31 December 2024 (the calendar year), and the resulting amount is divided by 12, which will be their additional Christmas salary.

Vacations

Vacations are obligatory and paid annually, and the worker is entitled to such for each year of service rendered. Its duration is determined by law. The characteristics of annual leave are as follows.

• It is annual leave, which the worker acquires “each time he/she has a year of uninterrupted work in a company”. And it is renewed each time the worker completes a year of service in the company; that is, the year of service that gives rise to the vacation does not coincide with the calendar year.
• It is a mandatory rest, which means that it cannot be agreed to suppress, reduce, compensate or substitute the vacation period or divide it except if the rest period is not less than one week or six working days.
• It is a right and a duty, which means that during the vacation period the worker cannot render services, paid or unpaid, to any employer.
• It is a prepaid vacation. The salary corresponding to the vacation period must be paid to the employee the day before its commencement, with any other salary earned up to that date and shall comprise payment in legal tender, including the cash equivalent of any payment in nature, if any.
• The “regular remuneration” paid on vacation is part of the regular salary, even if the worker does not render services during the vacation.
• The annual leave is a 14-working day break paid as follows:
1. after continuous employment of not less than one year and not more than five years, 14 days’ salary; and
2. after continuous employment of not less than five years, 18 days’ salary.

Maternity Protection

The legal protection of maternity begins from the moment the worker informs her employer of her pregnancy and extends for the duration of the maternity leave (which is 14 weeks, and its beginning normally coincides with the date of delivery) and up to six months after the date of delivery. During this time the employer cannot exercise a Justified Dismissal (for serious misconduct and without payment of labour benefits) if it does not have authorisation from the Ministry of Labor. However, the employer may exercise the Dismissal (termination with payment of labour benefits) if three months have elapsed since the date of delivery and if the 14 weeks of maternity leave have been exhausted.

The notice of pregnancy can be given orally, provided that the employer is subsequently notified by any reliable means, with the presumed date of the report. However, if the pregnancy is notorious, the employer could not allege ignorance, and therefore it is deemed to be communicated to the employer, the same as if the worker proves by any means, that her employer was aware of the pregnancy.

In a general sense, the legal protection of maternity implies the following.

• During the period of pregnancy, the worker cannot be required to perform work that requires physical effort incompatible with the state of pregnancy.
• In cases of night work, the employer shall take the measures set forth in ILO Convention 171 on night work.
• If, because of pregnancy or childbirth, the work the expectant mother or mother performs is detrimental to her health or that of the child, the employer is obliged to facilitate the worker to change jobs. If the change is not possible, the worker is entitled to unpaid leave, without prejudice to maternity leave.
• In case of incapacity before the maternity leave, the worker will be entitled to receive the common sickness benefit until 35 weeks of pregnancy. Any request for leave required after 35 weeks will be considered prenatal and therefore will be entitled to maternity and lactation allowance
• Pregnancy entitles the employee to 14 weeks of maternity leave, of which at least six weeks must be postpartum.
• During maternity leave, the employee will receive the maternity and breastfeeding allowances established by the SDSS, supplemented by a payment to be paid by the employer.
• During maternity leave and if the worker averages the last six months of salary above the contributable salary ceiling, it will be the employer’s responsibility to cover the difference so that the worker receives the ordinary salary in accordance with the provisions of the first paragraph of Article 239 of the Labor and Employment Code.
• During the maternity leave the affiliated worker and the employer must continue contributing to Social Security under the same conditions and proportions established in Articles 56 and 140 of Law 87-01.
• When a female employee requests the granting of her vacation immediately after maternity leave, the employer is obliged to grant her request.
• During the breastfeeding period, the worker has the right, in the workplace, to take three paid breaks during her working day, of at least 20 minutes each, to breastfeed her child, or to a daily reduction of working time for breastfeeding her child.
• The dismissal (termination with payment of labour benefits) exercised by the employer during the period of gestation of the worker and up to three months after the date of delivery and during the period of maternity leave is null and void
• Any dismissal (dismissal for serious misconduct and without payment of labour benefits) of a pregnant woman or within six months after the date of delivery must be previously submitted to the Labor Department, in order for it to determine whether it is due to the fact of pregnancy or is a consequence of childbirth, otherwise the dismissal is considered null and void.
• During the first year of the child’s birth, the worker may have half a day each month, at her convenience, to take the child to pediatric care.

Causes for Suspension of the Contract of Employment

Among the causes for suspension of the contract of employment that do not require the approval of the Ministry of Labor are the following.

• Mutual consent of the parties.
• The fact that the employee is fulfilling legal obligations that temporarily prevent him/her from rendering services to the employer.
• Detention, arrest or imprisonment of the worker, resulting in the impossibility of rendering the agreed service.
• The worker’s illness that makes him/her temporarily unable to perform his/her work.
• Occupational accidents, when they only cause temporary disability.
• Absences of the employee.
• Marriage leave.
• Leave of absence due to the death of a family member.
• Parental leave.
• The death of the employer, which causes the temporary closing of the company or establishment.
• Maternity leave provided for in Article 236 of the Labor and Employment Code.
• Half a day per month for pediatric care.
• Lactation periods.
• Half working days per week during the notice period.

And among the causes of suspension that require authorisation from the Ministry of Labor are as follows.

• Acts of God or force majeure, if they have as a necessary, immediate and direct consequence the temporary interruption of the work.
• Lack or insufficiency of raw materials, if it is not attributable to the employer.
• Lack of funds for the normal continuation of work, if the employer fully justifies the impossibility of obtaining them.
• Excess production in relation to the economic situation of the company and market conditions.
• Unaffordability of the company’s operation.
• The strike and work stoppage qualified as legal, do not require a resolution from the Ministry of Labor. However, to be developed within the framework of the law, they require the Ministry of Labor to be informed and to participate, exhausting a series of steps provided for in the Labor and Employment Code.

Illness of the Worker

If the employee is affected by an illness that prevents him/her from offering the services to which he/she committed themselves, his/her contract of employment is suspended, and this suspension releases the employer from paying the agreed salary.

From that moment on, if the worker was duly affiliated to the social security system, he/she will be entitled to the so-called common illness subsidy. And if he/she is not affiliated to the social security, the employer must assume the coverage of the social benefits that would have corresponded if he/she had been affiliated, or simply must commit to the payment of the agreed wages even if he/she does not receive the service rendered, in addition to having to assist the worker by making up for the lack of affiliation to the social security.

For the worker to receive the common illness subsidy, it is not enough that he/she be affiliated to the social security system. A series of formalities and procedures must be carried out jointly by the affected worker and his/her employer, with the participation of the Superintendence of Health and Labor Risks (SISALRIL).

Another relevant aspect is that during the suspension for illness, although the employer is released from paying the agreed salary, it happens that after carrying out all the procedures related to the common illness allowance, and after SISALRIL fixes the amount of the allowance, said employer is obliged to pay the allowance in question, and then expects a reimbursement that is credited to a bank account registered at the time of the request for the allowance, and this reimbursement is paid by and at the expense of SISALRIL.

Thus, for example, if an employee is incapacitated for 15 days in a month, eventually, during that month he/she will not be paid for those 15 days of absence. However, in 45 to 60 days, which is the average time that SISALRIL is currently taking to approve the subsidy, the employer will have to pay the employee the amount fixed by SISALRIL and then wait for the reimbursement from SISALRIL.

If such payment instruction has not been received from SISALRIL, the employer is not obliged to pay the agreed salary.

In practice, so-called post-employment non-competition agreements abound, whereby:

• the employee undertakes not to compete with his/her former employer after the termination of the contract of employment;
• he/she undertakes to maintain the same confidentiality that he/she maintained during the contract of employment, but also after the termination of the contract; and
• he/she undertakes not to work in companies that compete with his/her former employer.

These agreements even go as far as to prohibit the employee from doing business on his/her own account in his/her former employer’s area of business.

It could be argued that such agreements are contrary to Fundamental Principle II of the Labor and Employment Code, according to which “everyone is free to engage in any profession and trade, industry or commerce permitted by law. No one may prevent others from working or force them to work against their will”, contrary to Article 47.10 of the Labor and Employment Code, which states that “it is forbidden for employers... to perform any act that restricts the rights that the worker has under the law,” which violates the right to work and the freedom to work, protected by Article 62 of the Constitution.

The downside of all this is that these post-contract-of-employment clauses are already universally accepted in the countries that set the standard in international law in these times of globalisation.

Indeed, these agreements were initially admitted by US case law, and subsequently, practically all Western European countries have also admitted them, albeit subject to conditions that have been outlined both by US case law and European case law, and these are the conditions.

• That the work restriction be limited in time: one or two years, for example.
• That the restriction has a geographic limit. For example, in the Dominican Republic only; or, for example, in the hotels of the Eastern region, or that a sector or industry be limited, let us say, the pharmaceutical sector.
• That the former employer pay a severance payment to the employee who will be temporarily prevented from employment, and such payment may be a single sum at the time of termination of the contract of employment, which is in addition to the employment benefits, or else a sum paid periodically for as long as the work restriction lasts.
• The restriction is justified by business necessity or potential harm. For example, the possibility of transferring knowledge to competitors.

In addition to these jurisprudential precedents admitted in other countries, Dominican Republic legislation allows the restriction to work post contract of employment, in very special cases, and always subject to a compensatory indemnity.

These are the cases of the members of the Board of Directors of the Dominican Telecommunications Institute (INDOTEL), who for a period may not be employed in companies of the telecommunications sector. The same applies to the members of the Monetary Board.

In such cases, the applicable regulations provide for the payment of benefits to compensate for this restriction on freedom of work.

Such clauses are rare. There are also no legal precedents that could serve as guidance. Furthermore, there are no provisions on this matter in the Labor Code or its supplementary regulations.

The law provides the “Prohibition on the use of data. No private entity may collect, capture, process and use biometric data of a person or a client, unless the following conditions are met: 1) It informs the person, in writing or by electronic means, that his biometric data is being collected or stored; 2) It informs the person, in writing or by means, of the specific purpose and duration of the term for which his biometric data is being collected, stored and used; 3) The person grants his explicit, free, specific, informed and unequivocal consent to the processing of such biometric data.”

This means that the company that uses or intends to use telematic means that store biometric data of employees must obtain prior written consent from the employee. The same law grants a term of 60 days to eliminate the biometric database or, failing that, to obtain the employee’s consent.

80% of the workers in a company must be Dominican, and at least 80% of the total salaries paid by employers must be received by Dominican workers. Foreign technical workers providing management and administrative services are exempt from these provisions.

80% of the workers in a company must be Dominican, and at least 80% of the total salaries paid by employers must be received by Dominican workers. Foreign technical workers providing management and administrative services are exempt from these provisions.

The process for hiring foreigners usually begins with a letter of employment offer, which is given to the candidate, who must then return to their country of origin and go to the Dominican embassy, which, based on that letter of offer, will issue an NM1 visa (which always precedes the work visa).

Once they have this visa, the employee returns to the Dominican Republic, where the General Directorate of Migration (DGM) will issue a work visa or RT-3 visa, subject to a series of conditions and formalities required by the DGM on the one hand and the MT on the other.

Basically, among other things, the signing of a written employment contract, medical examinations, and evidence of the company’s good standing with the MT through SIRLA (the digital platform – Planilla del personal fijo) are required.

At the same time, the following practices are highly frequent.

• If the relationship has just begun or has already been in place for some time, it is advisable to contract health and work accident insurance for the immigrant employee, through a private insurance company with coverage as similar as possible to the Family Health Insurance and the Labor Risks Insurance of Law 87-01, on Social Security.
• As for the payment of remuneration, if the company or employer operates informally, it will have no major inconvenience in paying the immigrant employee.
• However, if the company is formalised in DGII, TSS and MT, it will be impossible to pay the immigrant as an employee. The best thing to do is to pay and deduct taxes as independent services, until their employee status is regularised.
• When the person is already in the country with the NM1 visa (which is different from the tourist visa, which means that a job offer has already been made) he/she can start working immediately, while the residence card is being processed (which takes about four months), and there are two ways to formalise his/her hiring.
1. The first is to register with the Social Security Treasury. However, this affiliation is only nominal, ie, it does not offer you insurance coverage. However, it allows the company to place you on the payroll and to consider you, from now on, as an employee. In this case, it is advisable to contact an insurance broker to open a health insurance and an occupational accident insurance, with coverage until you obtain your residency card.
2. The other alternative that is being used in practice is to pay the person as if he/she were an independent professional, withholding the taxes that correspond to that category, with two exceptions:
1. that as soon as he/she gets his/her residence card, he/she must be affiliated with the TSS as an employee; and
2. in his/her seniority as noted in the contract of employment, the time he/she was paid as an independent professional must be included.
3. The first option is more orthodox, although the second option saves on insurance.
4. On the other hand, if the foreign worker does not yet have a Dominican cédula (national identity card) but possesses one of these three documents: work visa; migration card; or regularisation card issued by the Ministry of Interior and Police – a request for assignment of Social Security Number (NSS) can be made through the Single System of Information and Collection (SUIR), following the instructions and steps indicated in the portal.
• If by chance the foreigner entered the country only with a tourist visa (without being in possession of the NM1 visa, which means that a job offer has already been made) it is convenient to agree with the foreign employee a break (at Easter, Christmas/end of the year, or another period of the year) to return to his/her country, and visit the Dominican Embassy, filling out the NM1 Visa Application Form, with the basic documentation (passport, birth certificate, certification of non-criminal record, SIRLA certification of the employer in the DR, and letter of offer of employment in the DR). And upon returning to the DR, you must complete all the paperwork at the General Directorate of Migration and Ministry of Labor, and in about four months, approximately, you will already have a residence or work visa, and you will be able to contribute to the TSS and be paid as an employee at the DGII.
• It must be taken into account that, according to the case law, the illegal status of the foreign employee does not prevent him/her from having the same rights and exercising the same legal actions as a Dominican employee. Given these circumstances, it is advisable to sign a contract agreeing all of the above as “provisional conditions” until the work visa is obtained. This would allow to cover the employer in case of a claim by the foreigner himself/herself (which has already happened) who, despite being aware of having been hired without a work visa – and so accepted it – then alleges damages for not being affiliated to the Social Security. According to the case law, the lack of affiliation to the TSS when the conditions and mechanisms indispensable for such obligation are not present, exempts the employer from liability, since “no one is obliged to the impossible”.

Following the COVID-19 pandemic, teleworking or remote working has proliferated in the country, and generally the parties freely agree on two or three days a week of remote working; other times, the parties agree on a longer period (three or four weeks) of remote working. In such cases, the employee could be working from home, from an airport, or from a hotel, interchangeably.

At the same time, the Ministry of Labor issued a resolution intended to regulate teleworking, but it has not been widely accepted, and no one is complying with it. It is too rigid: it is designed for teleworking only from the employee’s home, and it has numerous requirements, such as a written agreement, registration with the Ministry of Labor, and many other impractical conditions. As a result, since it was created in November 2020, no one has complied with it. Companies and workers have continued to apply teleworking as described above, regardless of the resolution.

On the other hand, it is important to note that remote work agreements outside the scope of the Ministry of Labor’s resolution do not entail risks or fines, since prior to the pandemic, case law had already validated remote work in cases such as drivers, salespeople, and even employees working outside the employer’s premises but at the employer’s client’s premises.

The law allows for the suspension of an employment contract without pay, so it is common to agree to suspend employment for a period so that the employee can pursue a master’s degree abroad. However, the law does not specifically mention sabbatical leave.

Following the COVID-19 pandemic, new forms of services have emerged outside the scope of labour legislation, such as delivery services, Uber, and complementary services in companies, for example, supermarket packers, who themselves prefer to operate outside the law because they earn more money than a permanent employee in the same company. The same is true for loaders and dispatchers of goods that arrive at the company or are taken to the company’s customers. Another trend is that goods distribution services are being performed by individuals (and even companies) not subject to labour legislation.

Trade unions are practically non-existent. Dominican workers are not interested in union membership. However, there are still some unions in the country, 95% of which were created in the last century and are made up of older workers.

Local legislation does not provide for worker representation bodies, with the exception of the Joint Health and Safety Committee, composed of representatives of the company and the workers, which only operates in companies with 15 or more employees.

Collective bargaining is practically non-existent in the country. Only a few large companies have collective agreements. Furthermore, with the exception of two or three cases, all existing collective agreements date back to the last century.

The law provides for the “desahucio” (or discretionary dismissal), which allows the employer to terminate the employee without having to give a reason, provided that advance notice is given and severance pay is paid.

On the other hand, there is disciplinary dismissal, which allows the employer to terminate the contract on the grounds of serious misconduct, in which case they must prove such misconduct, and if they fail to do so, they are obliged to pay severance pay and other compensations.

There is no prior procedure for desahucio or disciplinary dismissal.

If the employment contract is for three months, the employer must give seven days’ notice; if the contract is for six months, the notice period must be 14 days, and if the contract reaches one year, the notice period must be 28 days. And, if the employer does not wish to give the days’ notice, they are obliged to pay the salary equivalent to those days.

In addition, the employer must pay severance pay as follows:

• if the contract is for three months, they must pay six days’ salary;
• if it is for six months, they must pay 13 days’ salary;
• if it is for one to four years, they must pay 21 days’ salary for each year; and
• if the contract is for five or more years, they must pay 23 days for each year.

Disciplinary dismissal is possible if the employee commits any of the 19 offences listed in Article 88 of the Labor Code, the most common of which are as follows.

• Lack of probity and honesty:
1. theft, fraud, and breach of trust (No 3);
2. unjustified absences and abandonment of work (Nos 11 and 13); and
3. violence or fighting (No 3).
• Dismissal must take place within 15 days of the misconduct being discovered. If this period expires, the right to dismiss expires.

Furthermore, dismissal must be communicated in writing to the employee, stating the reason for dismissal and indicating the relevant section of Article 88. It must then be communicated to the Ministry of Labor within 48 hours.

If the employer fails to notify the employee within 48 hours, or if, even within 48 hours, it does not indicate the cause, or if, having correctly notified the dismissal, it fails to prove the misconduct committed by the employee, it shall be obliged to pay severance pay, six months’ salary, and legal costs.

Termination of the employment contract by mutual agreement is possible and must be done in writing and before a notary public. No other formality is required.

Normally, when the contract ends due to eviction, the employee usually signs a release from receiving severance pay. The employer does not have to sign anything except the check or bank transfer.

The discharge receipt does not have to be notarised.

Desahucio (discretionary dismissal) is not permitted in the following cases.

• During the time for which the employee has been guaranteed that his or her services will be used.
• If a suspension of the contract is in force that has as its cause circumstances inherent to the worker’s person. Even so, disciplinary dismissal is not prohibited; nor is dimision (constructive discharge or indirect dismissal).
• During the employee’s vacation.
• During pregnancy and three months or 14 weeks after the date of delivery (birth of the child) of the worker.
• During the period of union protection (union privilege) in favour of union leaders.
• If the worker is affected by HIV and AIDS.

As for disciplinary dismissal, this is permitted against a woman under maternity protection if the employer obtains authorisation from the Ministry of Labor. It is also permitted against a union leader with authorisation from the labour court.

Disciplinary dismissal must be carried out in accordance with the following principles.

• Principle of causality – there must be a causal link between the employee’s misconduct and the dismissal, ie, it must be proven that the employee committed the misconduct and not someone else.
• Principle of proportionality – there must be proportionality between misconduct and the penalty to be imposed. Dismissal, which is the most extreme penalty in an employment relationship, can only be justified in the event of serious misconduct, ie, a “serious culpable act committed by one of the parties, which entitles the other party to terminate the contract without liability.”
• Principle of opportunity – also known as the principle of temporality of the offence, according to which dismissal must be exercised within a reasonable time, or in any case must be exercised within the period established by law: 15 days from the moment the employer becomes aware of the employee’s offence.

The Supreme Court of Justice has ruled that “the serious nature that must accompany a work misconduct in order to be considered grounds for dismissal is not determined by the fact that such misconduct causes serious harm to the employer, but rather that it constitutes a violation of the employee’s fundamental obligations or that, by its nature, it makes it impossible to maintain the contractual relationship, that is, that it damages the existing relationship between the employee and the employer, even if it does not cause any particular harm to the latter.”

“Not every misconduct on the part of the employee is a legal cause for dismissal. The misconduct attributable to the employee and justifying dismissal must be serious and inexcusable.” The misconduct justifying dismissal must be serious. It is the express purpose of labour law to ensure, as far as possible, stability in the employment relationship; therefore, the facts that may justify the termination of that relationship must always be of a serious nature. That is, “that makes it impossible for the relationship” between the parties to continue, or “that makes it impossible for the employer and the worker to continue working together.”

If the employer fails to notify the dismissal to the employee within 48 hours, or if, even within 48 hours, it does not indicate the cause, or if, having correctly notified the dismissal, it fails to prove the misconduct committed by the employee, it shall be obliged to pay severance pay, six months’ salary, and legal costs.

Fundamental Principle VII of the Labor Code states: “Any discrimination, exclusion, or preference based on sex, age, race, colour, national origin, social origin, political opinion, union membership, or religious belief is prohibited, except as provided by law for the protection of the worker. Distinctions, exclusions, or preferences based on the qualifications required for a particular job are not covered by this prohibition.”

The burden of proof lies with the person making the claim.

Both the law and case law have validated emails and WhatsApp messages as valid forms of evidence, as well as videos and recordings.

The employer is authorised to access corporate emails, which are considered work tools, but not the employee’s personal emails.

The employer is authorised to have video cameras in the workplace, except in private areas such as bathrooms.

The employer is authorised to install GPS systems in vehicles assigned to employees.

There are specialised labour courts. There are no class actions in the country.

In theory, employers and employees are entitled to appear in court and defend themselves. However, no one does so, and everyone seeks the assistance of a lawyer, given that the process is quite complex and any mistake or failure to meet a deadline could be fatal.

The Ministry of Labor offers free legal assistance, but very few people use it, as people prefer to hire their own lawyers.

Arbitration is possible. However, it is only possible after the employment contract has ended. It cannot be agreed upon or provided for at the start of the contract.

Attorneys’ fees and legal costs are borne by the party that loses the case in court, whether it is the employer or the employee.