Last Sunday was May 1. The Catholic Church celebrated the feast of St Joseph the Worker, reminding us of the importance and dignity of work. Governments, trade unions and employers call it Labour Day and also remind us of the dignity of work. Maybe the best way to describe it is how the Italians refer to it: La festa del lavoro.
Unfortunately, if one looks at traditional ideologies (namely left and right), one notes they have one thing in common. They consider the human person as primarily a producer and both created the impression that the more a human person produces, the better one is as a person. Proponents of the free market economy also consider the person as a consumer, as it is not enough to produce; one also needs to consume to have economic growth.
If one looks at the messages that used to be propagated by regimes of both left and right, they always sought to project the image of a person working hard for the good of the country. In their case, the country equated to the government and the government equated to the political party. As such, man was essentially a producer for the good of the party. I dare say there was not much dignity there.
Those that projected man also as a consumer propagated the view that a person achieved happiness when with the money one earned, one could satisfy one’s needs and wants through the purchase of goods and services, and dignity was achieved through consumption. In effect, the only persons who ended up better off were the sellers of these goods and services through the profits they made. Again, there was not much dignity of work in all of this.
Over the decades, many have sought to keep up this charade and today we are faced with a number of circumstances that remove any dignity from work. Examples abound.
We could refer to child labour. We have producers who exploit children in poor countries to produce their goods at a low cost, making them work for several hours a day, while they make super normal profits from the sale of such goods. Very often, as consumers we are happy to buy such products at prices which are not economically justifiable, ignoring the exploitation of children.
Today we are faced with a number of circumstances that remove any dignity from work
We could also refer to those workers who are expected to work for more than eight hours a day, seven days a week, with no social protection, simply to provide food on the table for the family. Reference can also be made to those workers who risk their lives daily because health and safety rules are not applied.
Maybe these are the obvious cases, and we are all proud to say that such things do not happen in Malta. However, there are less obvious situations that lead to a loss of dignity in the work one does. To me, there is no dignity in work if one is allowed to earn a wage that one does not deserve, if one has been allowed to laze about all day. There is also no dignity in work when one must have a part-time job to be able to afford a basic need such as housing.
Moreover, there are the newer forms of working, such as jobs created by the so-called ‘platform economy’, where workers have to work at conditions that are below the minimum legal requirements. We could be having such situations in our country.
All these situations lead to the so-called “economy that kills”, as Pope Francis declared. We all become disposable persons and stop having any value to others when we are no longer in a position to produce or in a position to consume.
We just need to remember the case of the unfortunate immigrant who was dumped by the wayside by his employer because he got injured at work. In such situations, work would have lost all its dignity.
The dignity of work is restored when we stop considering the human person as just a producer and/or a consumer, and consider the person holistically, that is also from a social, cultural, spiritual and educational perspective.
The dignity of work is restored when we place the human person at the centre of the economy and at the centre of society at large.
The time has come to rediscover the dignity of work. Work should be one of those elements in life that provides satisfaction to the human person and one of those elements that enables the person to be a responsible citizen and contribute to the common good.