SANTO DOMINGO.- The heads of Dominican Republic’s major business groups warned Tuesday of the possibility of massive layoffs as the result of the local effects from the global crisis, and demanded lower specific operation costs such as energy and manpower.

The entrepreneurial groups including the Business Council (Conep), the hotels and restaurants grouped in Asonahores, the exporters association Adoexpo, the free zones (Adozona), the business owners grouped in Copardom, and the industrial companies Aird, among others, painted a bleak picture by comparing statistics from regional and other economies to convince the senior editors and economy writers that there’s an urgent need to reduce what they consider the exorbitant cost of manpower.

The presidents of Aird Manuel Diez Cabral, of Copardom Marisol Vicens, of Adozona, Fernando Capellan, of Adoexpo, and Ricardo Koenig, as well as Asonahores vice president Arturo Villanueva proposed a change in the Labor Code which they affirm wouldn’t reduce the worker’s benefits, and instead keep the companies competitive in comparison to the region’s trade partners, and prevent the layoffs they see as inevitable.

However, most of the senior journalists opposed the stance of the business leaders, including Mario Mendez of newspaper Hoy, and the head of Teleantillas TV news Juan Bolivar Diaz, who suggested that the business find alternatives to preserve jobs, specially demanding more from the Government in the areas such as the lowering of taxes.

Vicens said the business leaders invited the journalists to the event, in the restaurant Juan Carlos, “precisely to get a feedback,” and to promote their proposal before the government and other sectors of influence.

However, the Copardom president insisted that while some of the observations by the journalists were valid and would be considered, the urgency of the crisis made it “a situation that the country’s businesses couldn’t sustain any further.”

When asked if they had a Plan B prepared in the event their intiative didn’t find support in Congress, Vicens said they didn’t and that the country would “of course” survive. “Our country will forge on of course, but with its shortcomings, its calamities, and its poverty.”