Social Justice

The Fifth Theme of Catholic Social Justice

The Dignity of Work and the Rights of Workers

Work is, as has been said, an obligation, that is to say, a duty, on the part of man. . . Man must work, both because the Creator has commanded it and because of his own humanity, which requires work in order to be maintained and developed. Man must work out of regard for others, especially his own family, but also for the society he belongs to, the country of which he is a child, and the whole human family of which he is a member, since he is the heir to the work of generations and at the same time a sharer in building the future of those who will come after him in the succession of history.

• On Human Work (Laborem Exercens. . . ), #16

Six days you may labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the LORD your God. You shall not do any work, either you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your ox or donkey or any work animal, or the resident alien within your gates, so that your male and female slave may rest as you do.

• Deuteronomy, 5:13-14

Behold, the wages you withheld from the workers who harvested your fields are crying aloud, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.

• James, 5:4

Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”

• Mark, 2:27

The Dignity of Work and the Rights of Workers is the fifth of the seven themes of Catholic Social Justice. Man was relegated to a life of work at the very beginning of creation, due to Adam’s failure in the Garden of Eden. But when God gave his Commandments to the People of Israel, he spoke specifically of the Rights of Workers in regards to the Sabbath. Jesus himself explained that this Sabbath Commandment existed for the good of man, and was not to be observed in a way that created additional burdens for workers. This interpretation of Moses’ Law put Jesus at odds with the Pharisees, who saw the Sabbath only in terms of duties and obligations, and not in terms of workers’ rights. Thus, The Dignity of Work and the Rights of Workers have been a part of Catholic teaching from the very foundation of the Church.

The economy must serve people, not the other way around. Work is more than a way to make a living; it is a form of continuing participation in God’s creation. If the dignity of work is to be protected, then the basic rights of workers must be respected--the right to productive work, to decent and fair wages, to the organization and joining of unions, to private property, and to economic initiative.

In many cases, poverty results from a violation of the dignity of human work, either because work opportunities are limited (through unemployment or underemployment), or “because a low value is put on work and the rights that flow from it, especially the right to a just wage and to the personal security of the worker and his or her family.”

• Charity in Truth (Caritas in Veritate. . . ), #63

I would like to remind everyone, especially governments engaged in boosting the world's economic and social assets, that the primary capital to be safeguarded and valued is man, the human person in his or her integrity: “Man is the source, the focus and the aim of all economic and social life.”

• Charity in Truth (Caritas in Veritate. . . ), #25, quoting The Church in the Modern World (Gaudium et Spes. . . ), #63

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