In the proposal that trade union centrals delivered to the National Wage Committee (CNS), in addition to the 35% increase, the organizations raise several points to take into account when discussing the minimum wage rates of the non-sectorized private sector.
In the document they explain that in the country there is a certain consensus on the reality of wages and their insufficiency to cover the basics, “which, in our case, refers in concrete terms to a basket or basket of basic goods measure even -for the convenience of those who make public policies in quintiles of household income”.
Even with this classification of consumption of goods With respect to household income, the trade union centrals point out that labor income is increasingly lagging behind, increasing the gap both with respect to the average basket and with labor productivity.
Obviously, they add, that this hodgepodge of concrete facts makes wages precarious and deteriorates the quality of life of workers in low income much more directly.
In this sense, they consider that a redefinition of the Salary policy in the country that must go hand in hand with compliance with labor regulations, in the direction of protecting and promoting labor rights, still to be deepened.
discussion points
They understand that, to unlock the economic inequalityovercome poverty and generate collective well-being, labor reforms and salary policy must include:
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A tripartite pact to redefine labor income. Increase salaries by automatic annual inflationary adjustment and by labor productivity earned as an official salary adjustment mechanism
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Anchor wages to the basic basket in the medium term. To avoid wage precariousness and dilute the purchasing power of wages, the policy of anchoring wages to the cost of the basic food basket must be adopted. With this, salary discussions would have a concrete indicator of the cost of living, which adjusts better than inflation as an indicator of salary indexation.
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To promote from the State the collective bargaining spaces. Collective bargaining as an instrument to generate consensus between employers and workers, if it is strongly promoted by the State, can constitute support for better working and salary conditions.
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Freedom of association and freedom of association: The country must have the support of a salary policy that considers freedom of association and union as a support tool. This right is constantly violated, weighing down and weakening the working sector
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Social security reform: The social security reform should be an objective of the labor sector since it affects their quality of life in terms of health, decent work and insurance, while at the same time they retire in dignity. Solidarity must be above the market in this line
They say that from the outset, these axes of work of the union movement They must tend together with the public initiative from the State to overcome the current conditions of Dominican workers.
They explain that overcoming the inflationary crisis will imply not only a readjustment of nominal wages short-term, but a defined action that responds to a well-structured plan so that both employers, government and workers agree to improve working conditions.
Above all, the declining salary of workers, which represents the only effective way to alleviate inequality, poverty and economic injustice in which millions of Dominican workers develop their lives who will never be able to have access to quality housing, education and health under the terms of the current economic reality.
