The worker and human rights

Part of the message that you hear most world leaders speak of on Labor Day is this: The right to work is so fundamental that, s0metimes, even if there is a probable cause for dismissal, a business may rule against it due to the fact that the right to work is so basic very and much aligned with the right to life, the support of the worker’s dependents, and one’s right to decent living.

Some speak of something beautiful that happens when the person works with one’s mind, left brain or right brain, imagination, or muscle and they talk as if they really know that laborers do their jobs not only for money, but also for personal achievement, growth, satisfaction and other social values; that the market system itself and the business processes are greatly benefited when these immaterial values that flow from human labor are fully recognized.

Brilliant-sounding words in Labor Day speeches may include topics related to corporate social responsibility that goes beyond what the law requires. Politicians and government officials say it is equally unethical and socially irresponsible for any employer to actually dismiss or discharge an employee merely on account of her marital status. Hiring, firing, promotion, or demotion must be subjected to some kind of objective, unbiased and fair criteria – they say – and that workers ought to be treated equally on the basis of individual merit and not on the ground of sexual orientation or marital status.

We learn nonetheless that millions of workers across the globe have lost their jobs due to the 2019-2021 pandemic and, arguably, the job crisis made the global poor poorer and, sadly, the first quarter of 2023 was not promising either.

In Cagayan de Oro, a highly urbanized city in Northern Mindanao, thousands of local government workers became unemployed as city hall enforced its workforce rationalization program. City officials explained that it was meant to rid the local government bureaucracy of more than 3,000 non-essential positions.

Last month, layoffs in the United States hit a more than two-year high as technology firms cut jobs, with Meta Platforms Inc., the owner of Facebook and Instagram, executing a fresh round of layoffs and cutting thousands of employees.

In India, education-tech company Byju’s revealed that 4,000 of its employees lost their jobs and education technology group WhiteHat Jr laid off 1,800 of its workers.

What happens to the great speeches about every citizen’s right to work? What happens to business ethics that reminds the world that the right to work is part and parcel of the right to life and the duty to sustain it, and that the right to work is fundamental since it flows from nature and therefore a right that is inborn in every person?

What happens to St. John Paul II’s 1981 encyclical Laborem exercens, which asserts, among other things, that a human is created to work, to till the soil and raise cattle, to subdue the earth and its natural resources, and that social responsibility, which is both corporate and governmental, means making an attempt to fill this innate need? What happens to annual academic and pastoral discourses that emphasize that for many people, to work is to survive, to comply with one’s natural obligation to support her/his dependents?

Legal experts would say that national governments can put limits on most of the human rights and freedoms in times of public emergency. However, there are certain rights that are non-derogable (or notstandsfest in German), which means that under no circumstances can such rights be limited.

For this reason, the employee’s right to security of tenure should be considered as fundamental and essential as the rights to work and life and must be sustained. Born like twins, the right to work and the right to life obviously take precedence over other considerations.

Dr. José Mario Bautista Maximiano is the author of “Global Business Ethics for Filipinos of the New Millennium (Anvil, 2001) and the author of “Church Reforms – Semper Purificanda” Volume One (Claretian, 2023).