Chapter 4 Moral principle 1: Human Dignity in the Priority of Labor Over Capital

“When business does not attempt to see a rigorous respect for the moral, cultural and spiritual
requirements, based on the dignity of the person and on the proper identity of each community… then
all the rest (availability of goods, abundance of technical resources applied to daily life, a certain level of
material well-being) will prove unsatisfactory and in the end contemptible”

- Pope John Paul II

Man above other M’s

“Man, the human person, is above other M’s (Material resources, machine, methods, management,
money, etc.) The human labor, the spiritual worker, and intelligent capital, with God-given sublime
dignity, is the real wealth creator”

- PopeJohn Paul II, 1981

As differentiated from human capital (labor), material wealth includes money and other financial
resources, machines, gadgets, and state-of-the-art technology, methods and other technical resources,
and the whole collections and means, which management appropriates and transforms into products
and services in order to obtain profit. All of these are secondary to the dignity of the human labor.

What are the M’s

 Materials resources
 Methods
 Machines
 Management
 Money

What business factors create wealth?

Providers of Capital, otherwise known as shareholders or stockholders lay claim to most wealth that
corporations create or generate. They are more than convinced that corporations do exist for one
purpose alone: to maximize returns to shareholders.

Wilton Friedman, 1970

“Maximizing returns for the stakeholders” is universally accepted as the kind of international mandate.

The Wall Street Journal

What business factors create wealth?

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An Author of the “Divine Right of Capital”

She challenges the idea that achieving 15% returns for the shareholders is more important than paying
employees a living wage or protecting a community’s source of water.

She argues that material capital does not and cannot create wealth and that pile of physical capital
(machine, a method, a management tool) sitting anywhere creates nothing.

Underlines the importance of labor, otherwise known as the human capital or intellectual capital, the
intelligent entrepreneur, the strategic manager, the diligent worker.

Human resource is also called human capital and human knowledge is known as intellectual capital

Marjorie Kelly, 2001

Did abraham lincoln ever say that “capital is the fruit of labor?

Human Labor is the “mother” of all capital, who conceive and gave birth to it.

Capital is the fruit of labor, and can never have existed if labor had not existed; labor can exist without a
capital but capital can never exist without a labor.

Abraham Lincoln (Former US president)

Is human labor a sacrificial lamb?

Labor is sacrificed on the inflation rate’s altar of Oblation

Richard Gwyn,1997

Is labor the mean to economic development?

“Being is better than having”

God-given dignity depends on the former, not on the latter.

Archibishop John Foley, 2003

Is labor the mean to economic development?

He is an Econimist

“In assessing what we should first service – labor or capital and its high interest rates – we have chosen
to service the latter when it is the welfare of the former we should be most concerned with at this time”

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 Mahar Mangahas

Is the spirit superior over matter?

John Paul II, in Centessimus Ammus, 1991

He emphasizes that the priority of ethics over technology, the primacy of the person over things, and the
superiosity of spirit over matter.

It is good business when employers learn to accept the truth that every single worker is a human person
and that his sublime dignity is God-given.

Is the spirit superior over matter?

June 5, 2013 Pope Francis waves to the faithful as he attends his weekly audience in St. Peter’s Square in
Vatican City, Vatican. This Wednesday Pope Francis dedicated his general audience with thousands of
pilgrims and visitors to St. Peter’s Square to the UN World Environment Day.

Pope Francis

How is human dignity preserved among our migrant workers or ofw’s

It is unfortunate that overseas or migrant workers, considered as modern-day heroes, are almost always
prone to all sorts of exploitation by their employers in the host counties

Is there a more philosophical undertanding of human dignity?

The best concept must definitely ascribe to the human person a worth without an equal and an
assessment that is priceless.

Is human labor at times reduced to some aspects below his dignity?

The human person is reduced from Homo Sapiens (thinking being) to Homo Feber (Working man), as if
the whole being of the worker is equal to his work only and nothing more.

From homo faber, labor is at times reduced to Homo oeconomicus, as if the whole essence of human
person is equal only to his qualified materially, position occupied in the corporate ladder, income
bracket, number of credit card, insurance or financial worth.

Why is the idea OF IMAGO DEI RELEVANT TO HUMAN LABOR

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We are all created in the image and likeness of God, hence the expression in Latin Imago Dei. That image
and likeness of God in us is our spiritual nature, our intelligence, our free will.

Why is the idea OF IMAGO DEI RELEVANT TO HUMAN LABOR

According to the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

“All men are created equal in dignity and rights” That is every man, woman, and child possess intrinsic
dignity, regardless of race or color, religion, sex, party affiliation, or business connections

What is the more sublime paradigm of the human dignity?

The correct image of labor and human dignity is that of the divine image, and this concept of labor is
possible regardless of various beliefs or religious affiliations.

Each and every one of the factory workers and office employees is far more important than all capitals,
new technology, and expensive equipment imported from abroaad.

Should the priority of labor over capital at the heart of business?

Yes, this moral principle should be at the heart of every business, where labor is always the primary
efficient cause, while capital, the whole collection of means of production, remains a mere instrument or
instrumental cause.

Man is first among other M’s Drucker’s own words: “Unlike material and financial Assets, human
resources, by their nature, are highly dynamic and elusive, defying foolproof quantitative analysis and
predictability. The challenge of management is not so much in its money, machines, methods, market
but on its people. There is no exact replacement for human resources” (1954)

CHAPTER 5
MORAL PRINCIPLE 2:
Respect for Basic Employee Rights

What is the Business of Human Rights in Business?

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“Human rights are universal, indivisible, interdependent and interrelated”

-Vienna World Conference

Business can MAKE Or BREAK Society

“The distinction between Business and Society is man-made, artificial or even fake. Businesses and
Corporations are social entities, created in the context of larger interdependent cultural, political and
sociological systems-and therefore not divorced from society”.

-Forbes, 2012; Richardson, 2003

“In other words, it is a good policy in business to promote both trade and human rights at the same
time”.

-Simms, 2005

What is the Right to Work?

“Works is part of God’s loving plan, we are called to cultivate and care for all the goods of creation and in
this way share the works of creation”.

-Pope Francis, Labor Day 2013

What is the Right to Just Wage and Compensation?

The just wage is the minimum wage that will not only enable the worker to meet the bare cost of living,
but will also provide a means of desirable improvements in the quality of life.

-RERUM NOVARUM 1891-2016

What is the Basic Employee Right to Security of Tenure?

JOB TENURE is the measure of the length of time an employee has been employed by his/her current
employer.

TYPES:

1. LONG 5 years

2. SHORT 2 years

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STEPS TAKEN BY THE COMPANY TO INCREASE JOB TENURE:

-market relevant

-introduce re-skilling programs

-timely rewards and recognition

What is the Right to Due Process and a Grievance Procedure?

“Sporting idea of fair play”

-they say sports have fair play whereas the law has due process.

DUE PROCESS is the procedure by which an employee can appeal a decision or action made by a superior
in order to get a rational explanation of the decision and objective review of its propriety.

-the Immortal Cry of Themistocles to Alcibiades “Strike! But hear me first.”

-RICHARD G. STEVENS

Do Employees have the Right to be trained, to grow, and to develop?

CHANGE IS INEVITABLE

Planned and Unplanned Changes make it necessary for all personnel to upgrade their competencies or
acquire new ones.

Randolph (1995) insists that training is an empowerment that consists of a few simple steps and a lot of
persistence, and it is both your right and duty.

What is the Right to Collective Bargaining?

-negotiation of wages and other conditions of employment by an organized body of employees.

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