The world of work has changed considerably over time because of globalisation. However, despite these changes, the fundamental human rights of workers have not changed.

The Compendium reminds us that while the “historical forms in which human work is expressed change,” its permanent requirements, which are summed up in the respect of the inalienable human rights of workers have not. Faced with the risk of denying these rights, new forms of solidarity must be envisioned and brought about, taking into account the interdependence that unites workers among themselves.

It is here that the role of labour organisations becomes most important. These organisations have a responsibility to ensure that they adapt their strategies to protect and maintain workers’ fundamental rights to the changes that are taking place in the workplace.

 “The more substantial the changes are, the more decisive the commitment of intellect and will to defend the dignity of work needs to be, in order to strengthen, at different levels, the institutions involved”. This will ensure that current changes work out for the best, which also includes economic growth and development compatible with the environment.

These constant changes place a responsibility on “men and women of science and culture” to have a key role “in solving the vast and complex problems connected with work, which in some areas take on dramatic proportions.”

This is a responsibility that requires that they identify the occasions and risks present in the changes taking place, and above all that they suggest lines of action for guiding change in a way that will be most beneficial to the development of the entire human family.

To these men and women falls the important task of reading and interpreting the social phenomena with wisdom and with love of truth, leaving behind concerns imposed by special and personal interests. Their contribution, precisely because it is of a theoretical nature, becomes an essential point of reference for the concrete action prescribed by economic policies.”

“The present scenarios of profound transformation of human work call even more urgently for an authentically global development in solidarity that is capable of involving every region of the world including those less advantaged.

Regarding these less advantaged regions, the start of a process of wide-ranging development in solidarity not only represents a concrete possibility for creating new job opportunities, but is also seen as a genuine condition for the survival of entire peoples. Solidarity too must become globalised’.”

“Economic and social imbalances in the world of work must be addressed by restoring a just hierarchy of values and placing the human dignity of workers before all else. The new realities that are having such a powerful impact on the productive process, such as the globalisation of finance, economics, trade and labour, must never violate the dignity and centrality of the human person, nor the freedom and democracy of peoples.

 If solidarity, participation and the possibility to govern these radical changes are not the solution, they are certainly the necessary ethical guarantee so that individuals and peoples do not become tools but the protagonists of their future. All this can be achieved and, since it is possible, it becomes a duty.”

“There is an ever greater need for a careful consideration of the new situation of work in the present-day context of globalisation, in a perspective that values people’s natural tendency to establish relationships. Technology may be the instrumental cause of globalisation, but the universality of the human family is its ultimate cause.  For this reason, work too has a universal dimension, insofar as it is based on the relational nature of human beings.

 The ultimate foundation of this dynamism is the working person. The negative aspects of the globalisation of work must not damage the possibility opening up for all people: that of giving expression to a humanism of work on a planetary scale, to solidarity in the world of work on this same level, so that working in similar contexts, spread throughout the world and interconnected, people will understand ever better their one, shared vocation.”

Next week we move to Chapter 7 of the Compendium “Economic Life”.

Persons interested in purchasing the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, should contact the Catholic Commission for Social Justice, Archbishop’s House – 622-6680.