The bill, which was expected to be heard in a second reading this Wednesday by the Chamber of Deputies, was removed from the agenda
Santo Domingo .– Legislators who support the reform of the Labor Code warned this Wednesday that it would be a “national embarrassment” for the bill to stall again in the National Congress, while insisting that the consultation process has already concluded and there are no reasons to delay its approval.
The statements come after the initiative, which was expected to be heard in a second reading by the Chamber of Deputies, was not included in the agenda for the session scheduled for this Wednesday.
The senator for La Altagracia, Rafael Barón Duluc (Cholitín), urged the deputies to follow the example of the Senate, where the piece was debated and approved without external pressure. “I believe they should see what happened in the Senate, that there was no type of pressure, it was heard and it was approved,” he expressed.
The legislator maintained that it would be a discredit to Congress to let the reform fall again after years of debate and legislative work. “As a congressman, I would be ashamed for the country to understand that we have made a mess of this,” he stated.
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He added that “after so much time, so much work, commissions, and the country waiting for this, for this code to fall through now is a national disgrace.”
For his part, the president of the special commission that studied the labor reform in the Chamber of Deputies, Melido Mercedes, expressed surprise that the initiative was not presented on the agenda and said he hopes it will be considered next week.
“We understand that it will be next week. Now I have to admit that society looks desperate. We understand that we have lost too much time and the Dominican people are waiting for this labor reform,” he expressed.
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Mercedes insisted that the commission heard from all sectors involved and considered that it is not appropriate to reopen the discussions as the business sector suggests.
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“There is no more dialogue, the commission has already heard from all parties, from all the actors, so we don’t understand what is happening,” he pointed out.
Likewise, he warned that the population would not forgive the reform being postponed again. “They will not forgive us if this labor reform is not addressed in this legislature,” he maintained.
The deputy also rejected any attempt to stop the approval of the piece due to external pressures. “We are not going to allow, under any circumstances, for the businessmen to get their way,” he stated, after defending that the labor reform favors both the workers and the business sector.
The proposal to amend the Labor Code includes changes such as the extension of paternity leave and new provisions for the suspension of employment contracts during states of emergency. The initiative was approved in the first reading after six months of study in committee and must now pass a second vote before continuing its legislative process.
