The Duties of Employees

Duties of Employees.—(a) Justice.—Workers are bound to give a fair return in quantity and quality of labor for the pay they receive, and to be loyal to their employer as regards his person, reputation, and property. Hence, it is unjust to loaf or come late or leave early, to turn out work too slowly or of an inferior grade, to damage machinery or property, to waste food or provisions, to act as a household spy or informer, to try to extort what is not due. (For a consideration of the worker’s obligation to join unions see “Catholics in Labor Unions” by Francis J. Connell, C.SS.R., American Ecclesiastical Review, Vol. CXVI, no. 6 June, 1947, pp. 422 ff.)

(b) Charity.—Workers should be willing even at the expense of some right or of some slight loss to help an employer who is in grave necessity; for example, it would be uncharitable for farm hands to stop work promptly on time when this will cause a serious damage to the farmer’s crop, or for a cook to leave on her free day when her mistress is very sick and will be left alone.

550. The duties of justice of workers are indicated by Leo XIII:

"1. What has been freely and equitably agreed concerning work, that they should render wholly and faithfully; 2. not to harm the property in any way; 3. not to violate the person of the owners; 4. in defending their own interests, to abstain from force, nor ever to stir up sedition, nor to mingle with wicked men"; 5. by which words an unjust strike also is prohibited.

Therefore workers must:

1. Furnish wholly and faithfully that amount of work which has been freely and equitably agreed; and therefore a) perform the determined work at the prefixed time; b) complete it with due diligence, which is required by pact, law, or custom; this generally is sufficient when common and ordinary, yet sometimes from the nature of the thing, or by reason of the pact and a greater stipend, special care is owed; c) accordingly obey the commands of the owner given concerning labor in order to the execution of the contract.³

³ Cf. Belgian law of 10 March 1900 concerning the contract of labor, a. 7-10.

The obligations are of justice, as flowing from the bilateral onerous contract itself: for the worker does not make his own the wage, if he does not wholly, faithfully, and fittingly fulfill the work which he promised to furnish. Hence he sins against justice if from carelessness or culpable negligence he spends time uselessly, or furnishes his work defectively; the gravity of this sin depends upon the gravity of the damage inflicted.

2. Not to harm the property in any way, that is, to inflict no damage, whether by using materials prodigally, or by destroying machines, or by damaging or not returning instruments, or by producing defective wares, or by revealing the secret of manufacture; for by means of this sort injury is inflicted upon the owner or also upon buyers.

The gravity of the sin depends upon the gravity of the damage inflicted; this is also prohibited by civil law and sometimes punished by fines. But if damage arises from a fortuitous event, the worker is not held to compensate it, nor on that account does he lose the right to the agreed stipend.⁴

⁴ Ibid., a. 9.

3. Not to violate the person of the owners, that is, to inflict no injury upon the owners themselves, whether by harming, or by calumniating, or by grieving them with insults or threats.

Concerning the gravity of the injury, judgment must be made from what has been said concerning injustice through involuntary commutations, also noting that there is present a special malice against the observance owed to owners by their workers.

4. In defending their rights, to abstain from force, sedition, and mingling with wicked men. It is indeed lawful for workers to pursue their rights by legitimate means, by entering associations, by setting forth their desires to the owners, by having recourse to magistrates and deputies in public assemblies; but they must abstain from sedition and violent or unjust means.⁵

⁵ Ibid., a. 15.

Those acting thus commonly harm not only the owners but themselves, since the ruin of industry by its nature is apt to bring more detriments to these than to those. Hence the Pontiff admonishes them "not to mingle with wicked men, skillfully throwing out immoderate hopes and enormous promises, which generally has useless repentance and ruin of fortunes following."

5. To abstain from an unjust strike, namely, not to cease from labor before the prefixed time, unless there is a grave reason; and if it is indeterminate, to give warning at the due time; otherwise they are held concerning damages.⁶ Concerning this argument, more will be said below.

⁶ Ibid., a. 16 and following.