Employment

Is There Any Obligation of Giving Employment?—(a) The State certainly has an obligation in legal justice of offering opportunities of work to those who cannot find it, if the public welfare is compromised by widespread unemployment. Even if only one worker were without work through no fault of his own, the duty of helping him would seem to devolve on the State, since the laborer has a right to work and the State has the duty of promoting the temporal welfare of its subjects when they are unable to provide for themselves.

(b) Employers have a duty of commutative justice to give work to men with whom they have made a contract of labor and not to keep work from men unfairly; hence, arbitrary dismissal or blacklisting is a crime against justice. They should also try to secure other employment for good workers whom they are unable to keep, so as to tide over for the men the slack seasons when some have to be laid off. Industry, organized labor and individuals should interest themselves practically in private movements and plans to remedy unemployment situations, for these are matters that should not be left entirely to the State and charity. Employment and honest wages are in the long run to the advantage of employers as well as of employees, and are therefore good business as well as good morals.