Azua. – The Minister of Labor, Eddy Olivares, after leading an event held at the Bartolomé Olegario Pérez sports center in Azua, which was attended by hundreds of port workers and local community leaders, assured that the Government will deliver the full Christmas bonus and will not allow the arbitrary and abusive discounts that some unions traditionally make.
Olivares described the retention of up to 4,500 pesos of the state contribution by some unions as “unreasonable and unacceptable,” which he considered detrimental to employees, and was emphatic in warning that “under no circumstances will discounts be allowed to be applied to this benefit, the result of the effort and dedication of all of you.”
In that sense, he stated that the decision to deliver the bonus without cuts had already been made before the recent court ruling, which further reinforces its execution.
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“That money is for you, the workers, and no type of abusive discount will be allowed by any institution or association,” he stated.
Olivares took the opportunity to reaffirm that unionization is a legitimate right, but that unions must always act within the legal framework and without abusing the rights of their members.
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“Unions will not be subject to interference, but they must act with reasonableness and respect for the laws,” said Olivares, while urging workers to protect “this historic achievement with transparency, justice, and active participation in each port.”
During the event, the deputy Julio César Beltré Méndez, who has accompanied the port workers in favor of the full delivery of the bonuses, thanked the response of the Ministry of Labor and President Luis Abinader, highlighting that the intervention was the result of an informal conversation in Congress.
“I ran into Eddy Olivares by chance, and he told me: ‘Call the people together to tell them that they are not alone, that they have the support of the President and the Ministry of Labor’”, he recounted.
The Minister of Labor, Eddy Olivares, led the ceremony, accompanied by high authorities of the institution, including the Vice Minister Julián Mateo; the advisor on Inspection, Juan Ramón Ventura; the representative of the Inspection area, Yuri Ruiz Villalona; and the minister’s assistant, Humberto Ramos, among other important personalities. The Civil, Commercial, and Labor Chamber of the Court of First Instance of the Judicial District of Azua, through sentence no. 0478-2025-SSEN-00010, partially upheld an Amparo Action filed by port workers of this province, after considering that their fundamental rights have been violated by the undue withholding of part of the Christmas bonus. In that decision, the court determined that the exclusion of some workers from the payment of the aforementioned state contribution, without having been given the opportunity to defend themselves, constitutes a violation of due process. Furthermore, the fact that the union directives, at the time of managing the bonus payment, withheld sums of money under the allegation of a mandatory fee of RD$100.00 per union affiliation, against the fundamental right of association enshrined in Article 47 of the Dominican Constitution, was considered an aggravating factor.
