Social Dialogue and Workers rights in Dominican Republic

You are elected as an ILC Vice-President, representing Workers. What does this election represent for workers in your country?

First, I would like to express my satisfaction for the recognition of the Trade Union work in Dominican Republic.This election not only gives a real boost for the action of the entire trade union movement in the country, but also for the joint international action through the solidarity work done with CSA-TUCA and CSI.

The process of Autoreforma sindical that started with the support of CSI-CSA has been focusing on two themes: gender equality as well as trade union unity, in order to give workers a stronger voice, representation and power. The power to accompany the necessary change – in my country as well as worldwide – to go from neoliberal economic policies to a socio-economic development, based on Decent Work, where discrimination and violence against women as well as any other form will be strongly fought against, where children can go to school and not to work, where workers and their families can access adequate social protection and social security, with freedom and democracy at work, in order for workers to build independent trade unions and negotiate freely.I also hope that my election will be a reason for hope and pride for young people in my country, since it is for the youths that we are trying to build the present, so they can negotiate an even better future.

One of the issues discussed during the 102nd Session of the International Labour Conference is Social Dialogue. What are the challenges for Dominican Republic on this issue with regard to workers?

The first challenge is to transform dialogue in concrete steps for the advancement of workers: dialogue should not be seen as an end in itself, but a means to get results.The results of dialogue need first of all to transform themselves into public policies, since the State has to remain the main actor, moderator and executor of policies.Dialogue also needs to be recognised as the base for solution; it has to be managed in an institutional way in order to present proposals for long-term policies. This is why it is necessary that the constituents who are represented in the institutionalized dialogue strongly represent their mandate.

In your opinion, how can the ILO intervene to help the unions with regard to migrants and domestic workers in Dominican Republic?

The ILO’s action in my country, and worldwide, should mainly help migrant and domestic workers to know their rights. These are workers that very often do not know their civil, economic and political rights; they need to be empowered.

Domestic and migrant workers are so vulnerable, that it is imperative to build for them a series of binding standards in each country, so that they can have legal rights.In my own country, the three most important national trade union centres have signed an agreement with employers and civil society which foresee a study on the implication of ratification of C. 97 and 143, since we believe that these instruments should be ratified.Furthermore, thanks also to strong support from the labour movement, the Parliament is currently discussing the ratification of C. 189, which we hope will be entering into force before the end of July this year.

I consider it very important that the ILO has recently enlarged its scope, with the focus on domestic workers, on forced labour and trafficking and on the informal economy. The ILO needs to give answers to all workers, both those in the formal economy and those who do not have any protection.Besides the ILO, where I would like to emphasise the pivotal role of ACTRAV for workers’ organizations, the support in my region has been given by CSA-TUCA, which has shaped a powerful regional agenda fully shared by its affiliates.