Overview of Dominican Labor Law

[Robert]

An excellent overview in English supplied by Fabio Guzman.

• Word document: http://dr1.com/legal/business/Labor_Law.doc

• PDF document: http://dr1.com/legal/business/Labor_Law.pdf

Guzman Ariza & Asociados - http://drlawyer.com

[planner]

Thank you, thank you, thank you.... this is so useful. It puts into one place all the information we need, it is well organized and well put together.

[mikeyone]

Like to add my thanks also for the info.

[jstnorv05]

I have a copy the labor law code in Spanish but there a certain words that I have had a few problems with that could cause a big problem is a mistranslate. Is there a place that has an english translation of the entire code(preferrably in pdf)?

[HOWMAR]

Originally Posted by jstnorv05

I have a copy the labor law code in Spanish but there a certain words that I have had a few problems with that could cause a big problem is a mistranslate. Is there a place that has an english translation of the entire code(preferrably in pdf)?

I haven't seen a full translation of the Code. But I doubt that it would much more help than the English summaries as some things can be lost in the translation. For example the words "may" "must" and "shall" leave alot to interpetation. The Labor Reps won't care what your translation means, they only know what their interpetation of the Spanish is.

[jstnorv05]

I've been here long enough to know that you're absolutely right but understanding more than I do now could have saved us a lot of problems. I know we can only follow the law to the best of our ability and that still may not protect us but I think that if we do the best we can we may have less problems.

[HOWMAR]

Originally Posted by jstnorv05

I've been here long enough to know that you're absolutely right but understanding more than I do now could have saved us a lot of problems. I know we can only follow the law to the best of our ability and that still may not protect us but I think that if we do the best we can we may have less problems.

Absolutely. But don't try to interpet Dominican Labor Law using American logic. Many parts of the Law contradicts itself and logic isn't allowed to prevail. The bottom line usually is that if there is a question of interpetaion of a question, the worker receives the benefit of the doubt.

[jstnorv05]

Despite the lack of assurance that our attempts to follow the law may not provide us the protection of the law we would like to follow it to the best of our ability.

Originally Posted by HOWMAR

Absolutely. But don't try to interpet Dominican Labor Law using American logic. Many parts of the Law contradicts itself and logic isn't allowed to prevail. The bottom line usually is that if there is a question of interpetaion of a question, the worker receives the benefit of the doubt.

[Fabio J. Guzman]

You could write volumes about the interpretation of the law, Dominican or of any other kind. Of course, it helps if you have legal training, that’s why you have lawyers.

There have been several instances in history when lawmakers tried to do away with interpretation but they have all failed. In revolutionary France before Napoleon (1789-1799) it was established that judges could not interpret the law at all, they had to apply it just as it was written, and in case of obscurity or ambiguity the judge had to refer back to the legislature, where the will of the people supposedly resided, for interpretation. The system soon broke down under the overload of cases at the Legislative Assembly and judges went back to do their job of interpreting the law. The revolutionary lawmakers had repeated the old mistake of believing they could draft perfect laws. All human laws are imperfect and as such must often be interpreted to make them applicable to certain cases. “Life is wiser than the lawmaker,” a famous French judge once said.

For purposes of interpretation, Dominican lawyers use the same tools used by lawyers worldwide, guided by court precedent (“jurisprudencia”) and the opinion of legal authors (“doctrina”). For the particular case of Labor Laws, the Dominican Labor Code establishes a general rule of interpretation (Principle VIII): in case of contradictory texts or doubt about the meaning of a text, the judge will interpret the law under the light most favorable to the employee (“in dubio pro operario”).

[sunshine73]

Well this has been very helpful. One question comes to mind, is it legal to obtain a cedula as an american, for work purpose only??