Unions: dissolution of agency a US$150M+ ‘amnesty in disguise’

Santo Domingo.- The country’s labor unions grouped in the CNTD on Mon. announced protests across the country against the elimination of the Dominican Social Security Institute (IDSS).

CNTD president Jacobo Ramos warned that the dissolution of the IDSS, announced by president Danilo Medina on Feb. 27, would imply “a disguised amnesty” of over RD$300 billion US$150 million) for the employers whom he affirms evade the taxes in Law 18-96. “For several decades they’ve stopped paying their quotas to that entity, affecting health service and workers’ pensions.”

The union leader said the Government should clarify the companies’ pending debts with that organization, unless there is an agreement.

Ramos cautioned that labor will not sit idly by over a measure that he affirms will affect thousands of Dominicans who receive medical attention in an agency that has guaranteed that service for decades.

“It is not up to the Government to carry out covert amnesties that affect the rights of workers and reward those businessmen who must pay the actuarial liabilities of the reform we carried out in 2001 through Law 87-01,” Ramos said.