Article IV. On the Obligations of Masters and Servants

In most regions the rights and duties of masters and servants are determined by the civil laws. These laws can generally be considered just, and consequently masters or servants who direct their manner of acting according to them are not to be disturbed. A closer relation exists between household masters and servants living under the same roof than between masters and workers living separately. For servants are accustomed truly to belong to the family of the household master, for which reason they are also called domestics. But workers or laborers merely hire their work to a master for a determined price, without living in the same house with the master. Nevertheless, for the sake of brevity, there are explained here together, on the one hand, the obligations of masters and household masters, and, on the other hand, the obligations of servants and workers.

595. Obligations of masters and household masters. Masters are bound: 1. to treat their servants and workers kindly; 2. to instruct and correct them; 3. to pay them a just wage.

1. To treat them kindly, that is, by addressing them decently and humanely, providing good and sufficient food, not burdening them with excessive labors, and suitably caring for the sick.¹⁰³¹ These things are established both from natural law and from Sacred Scripture: "If thou have a faithful servant, let him be to thee as thy own soul: treat him as a brother."¹⁰³² "And you, masters, do the same things to them [namely, to servants], forbearing threatenings: knowing that the Lord both of them and you is in heaven; and there is no respect of persons with him."¹⁰³³ Hence masters sin who address servants with harsh and insulting words; who burden them with excessive labor; or who expose their health to dangers. In caring for sick servants, those things are to be observed which the civil laws establish concerning this matter.¹⁰³⁴

2. To instruct and correct them, or, in other words, a master is bound to have due spiritual care for his servants. For a master is the head and superior of his servant, whom he is therefore bound to direct in those things which regard religious and moral life. This duty is most grave. Hence St. Paul says severely: "But if any man have not care of his own, and especially of those of his house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel."¹⁰³⁵

For this reason masters sin:

a) if they do not grant servants and workers time to fulfill religious obligations, for example, to hear Sunday Mass, receive the sacraments, or hear a sermon or catechesis;

b) if they do not prudently and charitably correct irreligious, blasphemous, or foul-speaking servants, those giving scandal to others, etc., and endeavor to bring them back to better fruit. But if all admonitions have been vain, such impious servants must be cast out of the house;

c) if they permit their servants a proximate occasion of sin, for example, by not prohibiting dangerous familiarities;

d) if they themselves give a bad example, or if they directly solicit their servants to sins. Masters should be wholly mindful of a truth confirmed by long experience: an impious and irreligious servant who neglects his duties toward God the Lord also neglects his duties toward a temporal lord.

3. To pay a just wage. What a just wage is was said above, n. 310, in the tract on justice. Defrauding another of a due wage is numbered among the sins crying to heaven.¹⁰³⁶ Notwithstanding the civil laws existing today in all civilized regions, harsh and unjust oppressions of servants and workers are sometimes committed by inhuman household masters and masters, by exacting labors not contained in the agreement, unduly delaying payment of wages, dismissing workers for frivolous causes, etc. All these things more or less violate justice or at least charity.

¹⁰³¹ Cf. St. Alphonsus, Theol. mor. l. 3, n. 342; Homo apost. tr. 7, 7; Gury, Cas. consc. I, n. 382.

¹⁰³² Ecclus. 33:31.

¹⁰³³ Eph. 6:9.

¹⁰³⁴ Cf. the insurance schemes for workers existing in diverse regions and prescribed by governments (Herder's Konversationslexikon, s.v. "Arbeiterversicherung").

¹⁰³⁵ 1 Tim. 5:8.

¹⁰³⁶ "Behold the hire of the laborers, ... which by fraud hath been kept back by you, crieth: and the cry of them hath entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth" (Jas. 5:4; cf. Deut. 24:14ff.).

596. Obligations of servants and workers. Servants and workers are bound to render to household masters and masters: 1. reverence; 2. obedience and faithful service.

1. Reverence. For this follows from the virtue of observance which subjects must exercise. Therefore St. Paul says: "Let servants count their masters worthy of all honor."¹⁰³⁷ Hence servants and workers sin who mock or despise their masters; who address them with insulting words; who speak ill of them; who behave toward them impudently and insolently, etc.

2. Obedience and faithful service must be rendered by servants and workers in all those things which pertain to service or to the works owed. For this follows from the authority which masters have from God after a contract of labor has been entered into. Hence St. Paul admonishes: "Servants, be obedient to them that are your lords according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in the simplicity of your heart, as to Christ."¹⁰³⁸ And St. Peter commands: "Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward."¹⁰³⁹

Accordingly, servants and workers sin more or less according to the gravity of the matter if they murmur against just commands, answer insolently, do not work vigorously and waste time in idleness; if through their negligence damage is caused to domestic goods; if they reveal family secrets, etc. It is disputed among authors whether servants are bound to restitution if, through their fault, the master's goods are carried away by theft or are gravely damaged by others. It appears that an answer must be given with a distinction. When things of this kind have been specially committed to the custody of servants, then, if through their grave fault they perish or are carried away by theft, the servants are bound to restitution. For they are then themselves unjust cooperators and have violated the contract entered into.

But if the special care of the goods is not incumbent upon a servant, he is indeed bound from charity and equity to avert damages from the master's goods, but not from strict justice, and consequently he is not bound to restitution for damage inflicted by others and not prevented by him.¹⁰⁴⁰ The reason is that by force of the contract entered into, and therefore from justice, such servants are bound to nothing other than performing the stipulated works. Concerning this matter, however, the authors are by no means in agreement. A few authors, such as Billuart,¹⁰⁴¹ think that a servant is always bound to restitution for damage not prevented, or at least not disclosed, by whomever it may have been inflicted upon the household master. Others, with St. Alphonsus,¹⁰⁴² think that a servant who does not prevent damage to the household master according to his ability is indeed bound to restitution if that damage was caused by outsiders, but not if the damage was done by members of the household. The reason of these authors is that servants are bound from charity alone to protect their master's goods against members of the household, while on the contrary, by reason of their service, they tacitly obligate themselves to watch over the master's indemnity against outsiders.

I plainly do not see why servants, by reason of service alone, are bound less with respect to fellow servants and members of the household than with respect to outsiders; indeed, the more easily, frequently, and for a longer time damage can be inflicted, the greater is the obligation incumbent upon them to avert it. Moreover, members of the household more frequently cause damage to the household master than outsiders. Therefore it appears to follow logically that servants who do not prevent or report the thefts of fellow servants and other members of the household are more bound to restitution than if they conceal the same thefts when committed by outsiders. This, however, is most commonly rejected. Consequently, neither is a servant bound to restitution who, for example, does not prevent according to his ability the theft of something belonging to the household master which has not been specially committed to his care, unless, however, such restitution is imposed upon him by civil law.

How workers are bound to abstain from an unjust cessation of work or strike was said above, n. 307, in the tract on justice.

¹⁰³⁷ 1 Tim. 6:1.

¹⁰³⁸ Eph. 6:5.

¹⁰³⁹ 1 Pet. 2:18.

¹⁰⁴⁰ Cf. above, n. 110. Thus also Noldin, De praeceptis, n. 302.

¹⁰⁴¹ De iust. diss. 8, a. 13, § 7.

¹⁰⁴² Theol. mor. l. 3, n. 342.