RERUM NOVARUM

RIGHTS AND DUTIES OF

CAPITAL LABOR

REPORTED BY: Clarisse B. Accad (2L)

 Rerum Novarum means of
Revolutionary Change or Rights
and Duties of Capital Labor.
It is an encyclical issued by Pope
Leo XIII on May 15, 1981.

Something must be done for the workers

who are suffering;
Guilds, which have disappeared, cannot
protect the worker;
States and public institutions have
rejected the faith;
Ownership of private
property
SOCIALISMS ANSWER remove private
property.
Property, or capital, is simply wages in
another form.
Private property is a natural right.
Indeed permanent possession of things
is part of what human requires for life.
 Addresses the dehumanizing conditions in
which many workers labor and affirms
workers rights:
to just wages, rest, and fair treatment;
to form unions; and
to strike if necessary.

Upholds individuals right to hold private

property but also notes the role of the state in
facilitating distributive justice so that workers
can adequately support their families and
someday own property of their own.
 Duties of the
Proletarian and the
Worker
fully and faithfully to perform their
agreed upon tasks
Never to injure the property or person of
the employer
Never to engage in violence or disorder
to defend one's cause
Do not associate with hucksters
 Duties of the
Wealthy owner and the
employer
View every worker with the dignity an not as a
bondmen.
To know that working for gain is creditable
To know that to misuse men, to view them as means
to an end is truly shameful and inhuman.
In dealing with workers, their religion and soul ought
to be kept in mind
Make sure they have time to fulfill their religious duties
Protect them from corruption and dangerous occasions
Do not lead him away from his family
Encourage him away from squandering his earnings
 Do not overlay tax employees
Do not employ people to labor unsuited to
their sex and age.
Give them a just wage
To gather profit from the need of others i.e. the
indigent or destitute is against human/divine
law.
defraud someone of just wage is a crime that calls
for vengeance from Heaven
The employer may not cut the wages by force,
fraud, or usury
 Fundamental truths about Ownership

a) As the ancients taught, the right to own is different from

a right to use money as one wills.
b) The Church teaches that our possessions are not ours but
really Gods and so must be used without hesitation when
others are in need.
c) We are not required to distribute what we need to live or
to maintain what is becoming, but from what remains
we ought to give. This is charity.
d) To sum up, then, what has been said: Whoever has
received from the divine bounty a large share of temporal
blessings, whether they be external and material, or gifts
of the mind, has received them for the purpose of using
them for the perfecting of his own nature, and, at the
same time, that he may employ them, as the steward of
Gods providence, for the benefit of others.
Role of the state
The General welfare is met through:
1. Moral rule
2. Well-regulated family life
3. Respect for religion and justice
4. Moderate and fair public taxes
5. The progress of arts and trades
6. Fruitful harvests
7. Essentially, anything which makes the
citizens better and happier.
Since the end of society is to make men
better, then public life ought to be
structured so as to make it easier for
virtuous action.

Justice for the worker is in the best interest of

the State for it is only by the labor of
working men that States grow rich.
The State ought to:
Give special care to the poor and the
working class who have no resource of
their own to fall back upon.
Protect the private property of the
workers from those who would take
advantage of them.
Protect mans soul.
Secure proper conditions for the workers.
Promote just wage.
 If the worker and the employer both agree
to a wage, then it must be JUST WAGE.

If the worker and the employer both agree

to a wage, then it must be JUST WAGE.
Labor has two realties:
1. It is PERSONAL, i.e. bound up with his personality.
2. It is also NECESSARY, i.e. required for the
maintenance of life of those things which keep us
alive.
 Associations/Unions
These association is concerned with the private good of the
members of the association. Since their end meets the
natural need to associate with each other for aid, they
cannot be prohibited by the State, since they, again,
precede the State.
The associations ought to be structured according
to the betterment of its members. It should have
good and prudent leaders, a fair administration of
common funds, it should keep the rights and duties
of the workers and the employees in mind.
When there are labor disputes, it should set up

commitees to help come to an equitable agreement.

At all tims, work should be found for its members,
and a fund should be set up for the needs of the
workers and their families.
Right of association

CIVIL SOCIETY exist to protect the

common good and preserve the rights of
all equally.
PRIVATE SOCIETIES are diverse and exit for
various purposes within the civil society. E.g.
Families, Business partnerships, Religious
orders, and Trade Unions.
Trade Unions
The most important of all are
workingmens union, for these virtually
include all the rest it were greatly to be
desired that they should become more
numerous and more efficient.
Pope Leo supported unions, yet opposed at
least some parts of the then emerging labor
movement. He urged workers, if their union
seemed on the wrong track, to form
alternative associations.
Common Good
The interest of all, whether high or low, are
equal. The members of the working classes
are citizens by nature and by the same right
as the rich; they are real parts, living the life
which make is, through the family, the body
of the commonwealth therefore the public
administration must duly and solicitously
provide for the welfare and the comfort of the
working classes; otherwise, that law of
injustice will be violated which ordains that
each man shall have his due.
 Man not only should possess the fruits of the
earth, but also the very soil, inasmuch as from
the produce of the earth he has to lay by the
provision
All human forsubsistence
the future. is derived either
from labor on ones own land, or from
some toil, some calling, which is paid for
either in the produce of the land itself, or
in that which is exchanged for what the
When a man turns the activity of his mind
land brings.
and the strength of his body toward procuring
the fruits of nature, by such act he makes his
own that portion of natures field which he
cultivates;
 the labor of the working class the
exercise of their skill, and the
employment of their strength, in the
cultivation of the land, and in the
workshops of trade is especially
responsible and quite indispensable
indeed it may be truly said that it is
only by the labor of working men that
states grown rich.
Preferential offer for the poor

For those who possess not the gifts of

fortune, they are taught by the Church
that in Gods sight, poverty is no disgrace,
and that there is nothing to be ashamed
of in earning their bread by labor.

Equal treatment is preferable, but when

the general laws are not adequate to
protect the poor and vulnerable members
of society, it is just to give them more
help according to their need.