Santo Domingo.- Dominican Industries Association (AIRD) president Ligia Bonetti called on the unions to resume talks aimed at amending the Labor Code, to "modernize" and adapt it to the country’s laws.

She said payment into the workers’ pension fund and severance pay is a double burden for companies, as the Social Security Act and the Labor Code stipulate.

The business leader notes however employers don’t seek to eliminate the unemployment insurance which workers have already accumulated, because in her view the measure isn’t retroactive.

Bonetti said 70% of the country’s jobs are informal, which she blames on the Labor Code in effect in the country.

"We made an analysis to understand why informal employment is growing and one of  them is the Labor Code, and like it or not, the unions or the unionists who believe they’re defending the workers are doing it wrongly because we will not break the laws, we will not retroactively eliminate anyone’s severance, but we do want competition to provide them quality jobs and be able to have jobs instead of eliminating jobs," the AIRD president said.

 “We must modernize" the country's labor code as other nations have done, including flexible schedules, Bonetti said in the program Despertador Monday morning.