Question III: Concerning Masters and Servants

I. The duties of masters toward servants and workers are:

A. Of justice: 1. faithfully to furnish those things to which they bound themselves by contract explicitly or implicitly, first of all to pay the wage due;

2. not to impose work upon them beyond their strength;

3. not to dismiss them before the time without a just cause.

B. Of charity: 1. to acknowledge human dignity in subjects and to treat them kindly;

2. in no way to impede them from their religious, moral, and family duties;

3. to beware lest they provide scandal to them, and lest scandal be provided to them by others on the occasion of work or service.

C. Moreover, of piety toward servants properly so called, domestic servants:

1. to furnish suitable food to them and have care of their health, and even to provide a remedy for those who are sick for a short time, if custom has it so; but not if for a long time, unless it has been specially agreed;

2. to watch over them so that they may lead a good and Christian life, and to ward off the danger of perversion and occasions of sin, especially if they are younger persons whose education masters ought to care for in the place of parents;

3. also to correct them if by blasphemies, foul speech, impious discourse, illicit familiarities, they give scandal to others.

II. Masters sin toward servants and workers:

1. If they do not give them suitable food or a just wage, or due insurance against misfortune or dangers.

2. If before the time they dismiss them without a just cause.

3. If they do not pay salary at the time due, or without just cause subtract something from it.

4. If they treat them harshly or afflict them with insults.

5. If they furnish scandal or an occasion of sin to them, or do not avert it from them.

6. Especially toward domestic servants, if they do not take care that they observe the precepts of God and of the Church, do not correct delinquents, and do not admonish those negligent in the matter of salvation.

Hence, Reuter notes:¹ "if circumstances bear it, masters are to be admonished to satisfy their obligation, to treat servants kindly, not to call them by insulting words; to correct their errors, sometimes to overlook lighter ones, mindful of human frailty; to consult their reputation and not divulge their defects or vices, unless perhaps charity demands that they be revealed to another to whom they would thereafter wish to devote their labor; in which case also, no more is to be said than what conduces to the caution of the future master." And Aertnijs:² "Masters should be questioned whether they have corrected their servants when they were blaspheming, were not present at Mass, were not satisfying the paschal precept, were speaking foul things? Whether they permit the courtship of a male servant with a female servant in the same house, or clandestinely? Whether they have paid servants the agreed wage?"

¹ Neo-conf., n. 150.

² Th. P., n. 36.

III. The duties of servants and workers are:

1. To show the reverence due to the master.

2. To furnish obedience to the master's commands, given concerning work or service in order to the execution of the contract.

3. Not to harm the master's things, by abusing them or by inflicting damage.

4. To furnish integrally and faithfully the labor agreed upon, and indeed with diligence and at the appointed time.

5. Not to cease work or leave service before the appointed time, unless there is a grave and just reason; if nevertheless they did this because of grave fear or notable inconvenience, sometimes they could be immune from fault.

6. Moreover, if they are servants properly so called or domestics, to obey in those things which pertain to the governance of the house and family, good morals, and peace, and, if they are minors, also in those things which pertain to their education and instruction.

IV. Servants and workers sin:

A. Against observance: if they treat the master irreverently, afflict him with insults, contemn him, mock him, detract from him, divulge those things which are done at home, or violate a secret known from their office.

B. Against obedience: if they do not obey the master's commands as to work or service, and, for servants strictly so called, also as to the governance of the house and good morals.

C. Against charity: if they scandalize the master, or also if they cooperate in his sin, unless from a proportionately grave cause this is done merely materially and only mediately.

D. Against justice: 1. if through negligence they omit to furnish the service or work due.

2. If they inflict real damage on the master, or even do not prevent it from being inflicted in those things which have been specially committed to their care.

3. If, not content with the salary due, they strive to earn more than is just, or even secretly compensate themselves, unless it is certain that more is owed from justice and cannot otherwise easily be compensated.

4. If they appropriate to themselves the things of the master, or dispose of them by giving or selling against the master's will.

5. If in the name of the master they sell things more dearly or buy more cheaply and reserve the profit to themselves, unless the master consents, or the premium was certainly made in their favor.

In a case of injustice committed, they are of themselves bound to restitution for emergent damage and ceasing profit. Let them attend that several damages or light thefts against the master can coalesce into one grave matter. Yet this ordinarily does not hold concerning things of lesser moment, as concerning common foods, because masters are not very unwilling about the surreption of them, or only about the mode; on the contrary, concerning things carefully guarded, large sums, exquisite foods, extraordinary things, or things of great value, it does hold.

Concerning all the aforesaid they are to be admonished when opportunity is given and questioned, for example, whether they have faithfully fulfilled their duties, have well furnished the labor due by agreement, have not handed over work affected with a hidden or harmful defect, have labored diligently and not spent working time idle, have not called others away from work, have had care of the master's things and have not stolen from him.

V. Admonition: concerning masters who preside over larger industrial workshops and more abundant stores of things. - Let these take special care not to act unjustly toward workers, and to use great riches well, lest they be a scandal to workers and the poor. As Lehmkuhl notes,³ the confessor ought to watch: whether they fulfill the duties of a good father of a family and duly watch over their own, whether they abstain from depraved or dangerous amusements. But let him take care: that they lead a life useful to the common good and use money for founding works truly useful to human society, abstaining from excessive prodigalities; that they make large alms to the poor and to charitable works; that in honor and imitation of Christ crucified they abstain from worldly amusements and lead a simple life.

³ In the edition of the work of Reuter, Neo-conf., n. 156a.