COVID-19 and Labour Law: Dominican Republic

Abstract

The response of the Dominican Republic to the pandemic of COVID-19 from the Central Government has occurred with greater intensity while the labor union centers have been notably absent. The employers' confederations have provided resources to help mitigate the crisis, but the main help has come with the implementation of the Employee Solidarity Assistance Fund (FASE) program, which applies to most of the formal workers, although it leaves a large part of them outside the system. Informal workers amount to 58 % of the workforce and have been covered by the stay at home program which covers 1.5MM of people directly, although also many of these informal workers have not had any help. Many nonessential businesses have been closed, although supermarkets and pharmacies, amongst others, have continued to sell at capacities above pre-crisis levels. The Ministry of Labor has issued a single regulation, 007-2020 dated March 18, 2020, where it included certain non-mandatory guidelines for employers.