Section V. On the Duties of Employers and Non-Domestic Servants, or Workers

Preliminary Note I. The discussion concerns workers who have not been received into the family, and therefore do not pertain to the masterly society; such as those who labor in factories or workshops.

Preliminary Note II. It is disputed whether between employers and non-domestic servants there exists a relation properly so called of superiority and inferiority, or only that relation which every contract brings with it between contracting parties.¹ Now the reasons which are alleged for the existence of superiority properly so called, that is, authority, seem less firm.

Objection 1. Everything cannot be determined by contract; therefore it remains that authority be admitted, which orders what has not been determined.

Resp. Everything can be sufficiently determined by contract, at least implicitly; but if something obscure remains, recourse should be had to friendly composition, or the matter should be settled by a judge.

Objection 2. Between the employer and the workers there exists a true society, since they are bound to pursue a good common to themselves; but a common good to be pursued argues a society. But where there is a society, there is also authority.

Resp. The employer and servants are bound to pursue a good common to themselves, as all men are bound to that with respect to neighbor; indeed masters and servants are bound to that in a special way because they are joined to one another in a special way: granted. They are bound to pursue a good common to themselves insofar as they constitute a society, or insofar as they must pursue one moral end: this is not proved, or rather seems to be denied, because it is lawful for each one to rest in his own good, with common charity nevertheless preserved.

¹ Cf. Oskar Renz in Xenia Thomistica, vol. I, p. 474 ff.; Peques, Commentaire litteral sur la Somme Theologique, t. XII, on II-II, q. 104, a. 1; Vermeersch, De Iustitia, n. 455; Ned. Kath. Stemmen, 1927, p. 85.

I. Duties of employers. Employers are bound:

1. To treat workers kindly, for example by addressing them kindly and not imposing "more work than their strength can bear, nor that kind which is at variance with their age and sex."¹

2. To grant them a suitable wage, and not dismiss them illegitimately; concerning these things, in the treatise on the Seventh Precept of the Decalogue.

3. The things said in n. 719 about the spiritual care of domestic servants are not to be urged equally as regards workers. Yet certainly employers are bound, insofar as it can morally be done:

a) To take care that those who are of childhood age, and mothers of families, are not employed in factories or workshops.

"It is wrong to abuse childhood age and the weakness of woman. Let mothers of families chiefly at home, or in those things which are adjacent to the home, devote their labor by applying themselves to domestic cares. But it is a very bad abuse and to be removed by every effort, that mothers of families, on account of the smallness of the father's wage, are compelled to exercise gainful work outside the domestic walls, with their peculiar cares and duties, and especially the instruction of infants, neglected. Therefore one must strive with every effort that fathers of families receive a wage sufficiently ample, which may suitably provide for common domestic necessities."²

b) To take care that in factories or workshops everything be done honorably; hence, for example, let neither sex labor promiscuously, and let those who continue to be a scandal to others be dismissed.³

"The soul shudders if the very grave dangers are weighed, to which in modern workshops the morals of workers (especially younger ones) and the modesty of girls and other women are exposed."⁴

c) To leave them the faculty of fulfilling ecclesiastical precepts.⁵ Besides, other precepts also of common charity - for example of correcting - can be urged more as regards workers, since they are joined to the master by a special bond.

d) To acknowledge the right of workers to establish associations for protecting their rights and promoting their good.⁶

¹ Encyclical of Leo XIII Rerum novarum, May 15, 1891.

² Encyclical of Pius XI Quadragesimo anno, May 15, 1931.

³ Encyclical of Leo XIII Rerum novarum.

⁴ Encyclical Quadragesimo anno.

⁵ Encyclical Rerum novarum; likewise Quadragesimo anno.

⁶ Encyclical of Leo XIII Longinqua oceani, January 6, 1895; Sacred Consistorial Congregation to the Bishop of Lille, June 5, 1929; likewise encyclical Quadragesimo anno.

II. Duties of workers. Workers owe employers:

1. Reverence, and indeed from the virtue of observance. Moreover, they owe them a certain reverence because employers are more eminent in many things; wherefore note these words of St. Thomas: "In anyone there is found something from which someone can regard him as superior, according to that saying in Phil. 2: 'In humility, considering one another as superiors'; and according to this all also ought to anticipate one another in honor" (II-II, q. 103, a. 2, ad 3). But the reverence due is from the virtue of observance, according to these words of the same Doctor: "Reverence which is shown to some persons on account of any excellence whatever pertains to the same virtue [that is, to observance]" (St. Thomas, II-II, q. 102, a. 1, ad 2; n. 397).

2. Faithful service; which is owed by force of the contract entered into, and therefore from commutative justice; for the rest, as to faithful service, what has been said about domestic servants has force (n. 720).