He reform project to the Labor Code enter a change in the regulation of weekly restwhich is to allow Sunday to be treated as an ordinary work day, as long as the worker has agreed to take his rest on another day.
The current Labor Code in your article 163 establishes: “Every worker has the right to a weekly rest uninterrupted thirty-six hours. This rest It will be agreed between the parties and can begin any day of the week. In the absence of express convention, it begins on Saturday at noon.”
This provision indicates that the worker must have at least 36 hours straight of rest per week, normally from Saturday noon to Monday morning, unless otherwise agreed with the employer.
While the reform project proposes for the article 163:
- “Every worker has the right to a weekly rest uninterrupted of at least thirty-six hours. This rest It will be agreed between the parties and can begin any day of the week. In the absence of express convention, it begins on Saturday at noon. If he weekly rest of the worker is enjoyed on another day of the week, the worker will receive his ordinary salary for working on Sundays.
What changes are there? Add the phrase “at least“, which leaves the door open to the possibility that the rest may be longer than 36 hours, provided that the parties so agree.
It also indicates that, if the worker rest another dayfor example, Thursday instead of Sunday, and you work on Sunday, then you should receive your ordinary salary for that Sunday job.
This implies that the project seeks to regulate work on Sundays, making it clear that working on that day does not involve a extra paymentprovided that the weekly rest be taken on another day.
About him change
The president of the Employers’ Confederation of the Dominican Republic (Copardom), Laura Penaexplained that the reason for change is the labor flexibility. Sunday is considered to be restbut that in the country many people such as merchants, medical personnel and others do work.
In one interview in the program “The Awakener“, Peña indicated that it was established that, if on the day of rest of a worker is not Sunday, this day will be considered as a normal business day. This was agreed tripartitely between employers, workers and the government.
“That was agreed upon tripartite in the table. Notice that little by little what we did was review the code to adapt it to these new work modalities,” he added.
The draft reform of the Labor Code (Law 16-92) is currently on the table in the Senate, in order to continue analyzing future amendments to the initiative, which was already approved in first reading.
