Section — Noldin, Summa of Moral Theology
Section 1. On the Obligations of Servants
300. On obligations in general. Servants are called those who are hired for pay to furnish services in some family. Servants through the contract of service become part of the master's family, and therefore are called familiars and domestics.
a. From servants are distinguished workers or artisans, who lease their labors to some master for a definite time. These are not received into the master's family nor properly subject to his governance; for masters do not become their superiors.
b. The principal obligations of masters and servants arise from the contract of service, and therefore are obligations of justice; but from the same contract there also arises a relation of superiority and subjection, for which reason servants are subject to the master's governance. Therefore if they offend gravely against the honor or obedience due to the master, they sin against the virtue of observance and ought in confession to indicate the circumstance of service in order to declare the lowest species of the sin.
c. In most cultivated regions today, the rights and offices between master and servants are specifically determined by civil law, that is, by the servant ordinance (Dienstboten-Ordnung).1 Since contracting parties enter contracts according to the laws in force, the dispositions of these laws are contained in the contract of service, to which special agreements can be added.
1 Cf. Austrian civil code, Section 1172; German civil code, Section 617 ss.
301. On obligations in particular. Servants are bound to furnish their masters: a. reverence; b. service.
- Reverence: for their own condition enjoins observance upon servants, which by its nature requires reverence: "Let them judge their masters worthy of all honor."1
Therefore they are bound to bear with an even mind the troubles, harshness, and moroseness of masters, and not for this reason to desist from their office. Hence according to the measure of the matter servants can sin even gravely if they spurn masters, mock them, use contumelious words against them, or conduct themselves arrogantly and insolently.
- They owe service and obedience to masters in those things which pertain to service and to good morals. The reason for the first is that by force of the contract they obligated themselves to these things; the reason for the second is that governance belongs to superiors by reason of office, to which in subjects corresponds the obligation of obeying.
a. Hence according to the measure of the matter servants can sin even gravely: alpha. if they do not labor strenuously or waste time in idleness; beta. if from culpable negligence they bring detriment to domestic affairs; but if without fault and beyond intention, for example by breaking something, they cause damage to the master, of themselves, apart from a special agreement, they are not bound to repair it; gamma. if they reveal the secrets of the family to others, especially where damage follows from their revelation.
b. They sin if without just cause they abandon service before the constituted time. A servant who without cause departs before the constituted time of himself has the right to the agreed pay for the time during which he actually furnished service, although this pay, according to a quantity to be determined by prudent judgment, can be diminished somewhat; for service furnished merits its pay, but the master can lessen it because the servant did not stand by the contract. Yet if the master suffers grave detriment on account of the departure of the servant, he can keep himself indemnified by deducting part of the pay.2 But positive laws sometimes establish otherwise.3
1 1 Tim. 6:1.
2 St. Alphonsus, n. 345.
3 Austrian civil code, Section 1172; German civil code, Section 617.
302. Whether servants are bound from justice to guard the goods of the family and therefore to impede damages which are inflicted upon the master. - a. Servants who are hired for guarding and defending the family estate, such as guards, administrators, etc., certainly are bound from commutative justice to impede any damage from being inflicted on the master.
b. But servants who are hired only for furnishing their labor and work are indeed bound from charity to guard the goods of the family and to impede damages, but that they are obligated to this from justice cannot be certainly demonstrated, unless the care and custody of some thing has been committed to them for a special reason. For from the fact that special servants are hired for guarding domestic goods, who are also called by a peculiar name, it seems possible to infer that the others are hired only for furnishing their labor to the family. Therefore, because the obligation is not certainly established, it is not to be imposed upon them, unless civil law enjoins it upon servants.
There are those who contend, Diana and Pontius, that servants are held from justice to impede damages, whether these are inflicted upon the master by outsiders or by other servants. Their reason is that, by reason of service itself, domestic goods are committed to the servants to be guarded. Others, on the contrary, teach, Salmanticenses and Tamburini, that servants are obligated to impede those damages which are inflicted by outsiders, but not those which are inflicted by members of the household; for by the fact that they are admitted into the family they are judged indeed to assume the obligation of defending the goods of the family against outsiders, but not also against other members of the household. Nevertheless, the opinions of these authors do not exceed probability.1
1 Cf. Lessius, De iustitia, l. 2, c. 13, n. 75; Lugo, De iustitia, disp. 19, n. 105 ss.