Article III. On the Duties of Employers and Workers

Pius X, in the Motu Proprio of December 18, 1903, hands down the fundamental norms of Christian popular action, among which some clearly place before the eyes the duties of workers and of the wealthy.

1st. "The duties of justice, as regards the proletarian and worker, are these: that what has been freely and equitably agreed upon as to work, he render entirely and faithfully; that he harm the property in no way, that he not violate the person of the masters; in protecting his own interests, that he abstain from force and never stir up sedition." 2nd. "As regards capitalists and employers, the duties of justice are these: to furnish a just wage to workers; that they harm their just savings in nothing, neither by force nor by fraud nor by usurious arts (manifest or disguised usury); to grant them liberty for fulfilling their religious duties; not to expose them to corrupting seduction and dangers of scandal nor draw them away from the spirit of family and pursuit of thrift; not to impose more work than their strength can bear nor that kind which is at variance with age and sex." 3rd. "The duty of charity of the rich and fortunate is that they assist the poor and needy according to the Gospel precept, which precept indeed obliges so gravely that on the day of judgment an account of its observance will have to be rendered most severely." 4th. "Therefore let the poor not have their poverty as a reproach, nor disdain to accept the charity of the rich. Let them always place before their eyes Jesus the Redeemer, who, although he could have been born amid riches, made himself poor so that he might ennoble their poverty and render it rich with incomparable merits for heaven." 5th. "For resolving the worker question, capitalists and workers themselves can do much by institutes ordered to extending opportune remedies to the needy and to effecting that one order approach nearer to and be united with the other. Such are mutual aid societies, manifold private insurances, patronages for protecting children, but above all corporations of workers."

But if these principles ought to be dear to all, much more to those who are the example of the flock, as is clear from the Code:

All, and especially clerics, religious, and administrators of ecclesiastical goods, in the hiring of labor must assign to workers an honorable and just wage; take care that these same have leisure for piety for a suitable space of time; in no pact lead them away from domestic care and the pursuit of thrift, nor impose more work upon them than their strength can bear, nor that kind which is at variance with age and sex (Can. 1524).