It’s Church teaching: Pay workers justly

In South Africa, the practicalities of the just wage are currently being severely tested with numerous workers’ strikes, most of which turn violent.

It became an idea to die for after August 9, 2012, when following a wage dispute, about 3 000 unorganised mine workers, employed by Lonmin platinum mines, went on an unprotected strike.

The strike, as we all know, culminated on August 16 in what today is referred to as Marikana Massacre, in which 34 miners died, and several were injured.

The Marikana Massacre revived memories of brutality suffered under apartheid forces, prompting wide criticism of the government.

Whatever your view of it, the incident was a watershed moment of our post-’94 politics and represents a catalyst for change, and a wake-up call to the moral complacency that settled in our politics after the defeat of apartheid.

The recorded idea of a just wage goes as far back as Adam Smith, the 18th-century Scottish moral philosopher and pioneer of political economy. Writing in his Wealth of Nations, Smith recognised that rising real wages lead to the “improvement in the circumstances of the lower ranks of people” and are therefore an advantage to society.

In The Spirit of Laws Book XV, Montesquieu (1689-1755), the French lawyer and man of letters, was of the opinion that before Christianity had abolished civil slavery in Europe, working in the mines was judged too toilsome for any but slaves or malefactors.

Montesquieu saw that the master had an incentive to engage cheap labour rather than to own slaves. The master would be free from the care and expense of housing, feeding and clothing his workers.

The worker also benefited. He could choose his own lifestyle within the limits of his wages, selecting food, clothing and shelter to meet his desires.

Most of all, the worker would have the incentive to invest some capital of his own, so that he could educate his children, and perhaps give them a modest inheritance.

With that, the terms of the living wage were being crafted.

The idea of a living wage became central in the Catholic Social Teaching, beginning with Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical Rerum Novarum (“On the Condition of Workers”, 1891).

The encyclical deals with the practical problems of workers by demanding a priority for labour, and by calling for employers and workers to strive together for justice. Pope Leo XIII proposed:

• Consent to a wage between employer and workman is necessary, but the workman’s consent does not in itself ensure justice. The economic leverage of the employer must not be used to exploit workmen (paras 47-49).

• By natural law, the wage must support the wage-earner “in reasonable and frugal comfort”, and this supersedes any bargain to the contrary (49).

• A just wage will support a worker and his family and enable him “to put by a little property”. Laws should favour ownership of property by as many as possible (50).

• Unions and other associations that support workers are encouraged (52).

• Workmen, employers, the Church, government and philanthropists should all cooperate, in charity and mutual respect, to “ensure the well-being of the poor” (63).

The culture and tone of Pope Leo XIII was carried forward by Pope Pius XI, who in 1931 issued another social encyclical, Quadragesimo Anno (“On the Reconstruction of the Social Order”).

He encouraged enterprises in which workers shared in ownership or management, or profits of the companies they worked for.

Pope Pius XI advocated that “the worker must be paid a wage sufficient to support him and his family” (71).

He said that if ”existing circumstances” make it impossible to pay a just wage, “social justice demands that changes be introduced as soon as possible whereby such a wage will be assured to every adult working man”. (71). This was the beginning of the “just system” concept.

St John Paul II maintained the emphasis on respect for the dignity of each individual human person in his social justice encyclicals Laborem Exercens (1981) and Centesimus Annus (1991).

He defined “man” as the subject of work, rather than “production”. Work is good, man thereby becomes a co-creator with God himself in developing creation for the good of all (25.2).

St John Paul taught that in addition to the “direct employer”, who signs the paycheque and orders the work, the role of the “indirect employer”—society—must also be recognised.

St John Paul said:

• Unemployment is an evil to be fought, and insured against (18.1).

• Medical care should be easily available and cheap, and there should be provision for old age (19.6).

• Unions should struggle for social justice, but this must not be a “class struggle”. Unions seek the good of the workers, but not harm to others (20.3).

The Catholic Social Teachings have always been against the alienation of radical capitalism, “when people use one another, and when they seek an ever more refined satisfaction of their individual and secondary needs”.

The widely publicised critique of capitalism by Pope Francis, which some misguided people have even called “Marxist”, merely echo what popes before him have said.

Most Catholic bishops’ conferences, including those of Southern Africa and of England and Wales fully endorse the principle of the just wage. They invite Catholic organisations and charities to work towards its implementation.

Radical market economical theories have themselves never been able to dispute Smith’s argument even as they turn to prioritise profit over the living wage of workers.