Maravi

The plight of workers

COMMENT - If they are the representatives of the Zambian people, why do they side with foreign corporations?

The plight of workers
By Editor
Mon 16 Nov. 2009, 04:00 CAT

There is no government that cares about workers that can allow them to be humiliated and exploited in this way. The treatment of workers by foreign investors operating in this country leaves much to be desired. But what is sad is that these foreign investors have the backing of our government in their mistreatment and exploitation of workers.

When there is a problem, when workers are not happy with their conditions of service, their pay, the government has invariably been on the side of their employers.

And it’s not only this government that takes sides with the employers. Even that of Levy Mwanawasa did the same when it came to Konkola Copper Mines (KCM). Levy took the side of the owners of KCM against the workers. This is not right. There is need for government to protect workers from humiliation, exploitation and mistreatment.

All workers have the right to receive a just wage. There is no political participation without meaningful economic participation. And that’s why we must affirm that work provides a legitimate and primordial title of property over goods.

This implies a new, fundamentally humanistic conception of the economic process, which surpasses the exploitative approach, where capital was privileged and work was considered as marketable. The management of business should be patrimony to all who labour within it, as a specific way to be mobilised and to participate socially.

Therefore, not only should the predominance of capital over labour be avoided, but so should paternalism and the possible manipulation by leaders and businesspersons, and the concern for labourers in less favoured businesses should be promoted for the good of the whole country.

What has been said before and the experiences lived by our people lead us to reject this practice where foreign investors get away with everything – they pay the least taxes, they actually determine the taxes they will pay and the conditions under which they employ people. This should not continue to be acceptable.

New ways should be found to engage foreign capital in a manner that is mutually beneficial. Those who cannot accept such an environment should be shown the door. There should be no foreign capital that is placed above the dignity of our people. If we get to that point, then it should simply be a question of giving to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to the people what belong to the people.

We say this because people’s work concerns not only the economy but also, and especially, personal values. Work is rooted in respect for human dignity. It is done by a collection of individuals who have chosen to come together and unite their minds, wills and hearts for the common good. Therefore, every effort should be made that the enterprise becomes a community of persons.

The motive of business should be not only to make profit but even more to contribute to the common good of society. Businesses should be characterised by their capacity to serve the common good of society. The sense of responsibility in economic initiative should demonstrate the individual and social virtues necessary for the development. A business enterprise must be a community of solidarity and not a vehicle for the humiliation, exploitation of others.

The roles of business owners and management have a central importance from the viewpoint of society, because they are at the heart of that network of technical, commercial, financial and cultural bonds that characterise the modern business reality. For this reason, the exercise of responsibility by business owners and management requires constant reflection on the moral motivations that should guide personal choices of those to whom these tasks fall.

There is need for the government to urgently liberate our workers who are caught in this intolerable situation of economic exploitation and humiliation. This must begin with an immense effort to try and make work more civilised.

The life of Jesus Christ, a real “gospel of work”, offers us the living example and principle of the radical transformation essential for solving the grave problems that must be faced by the age in which we live. He, who though he was God became like us in all things, devoted greater part of his earthly life to manual labour. The culture our age awaits will be marked by the full recognition of the dignity of human work, which appears in all its nobility and fruitfulness in the light of the mysteries of creation and redemption. Recognised as a form of the person, work becomes a source of creative meaning and effort.

Thus the solution of most of the serious problems related to poverty is to be found in the promotion of a true civilisation of work. In a sense, work is the key to the whole social question.

It is therefore in the domain of work that priority must be given to the action of liberation in freedom. We say this because the relationship between the human person and work is radical and vital, the forms and models according to which this relationship is regulated will exercise a positive influence for the solution of a whole series of social and political problems facing us. Just work relationships will be a necessary precondition for a system of political community capable of favouring the integral development of every individual. You cannot say you are developing a country without lifting the people from their poverty.

If the system of labour relations put into effect by those directly involved – workers and employers, with the essential support of public powers – succeeds in bringing into existence a civilisation of work, then there will take place a profound and peaceful change in people’s outlooks and in institutional and political structures.

A work culture such as this will necessarily presuppose and put into effect a certain number of essential values. It will acknowledge that a person of the worker is the principle, subject, and purpose of work. It will affirm the priority of work over capital, and the fact that material goods are meant for all. It will be animated by sense of solidarity involving not only rights to be defended but also duties to be performed. It will involve participation aimed at promoting national and international common good and not just defending individual or corporate interests. It will assimilate the methods of confrontation and of frank and vigorous dialogue.

As a result, political authorities will become more capable of acting with respect for the legitimate freedoms of individuals and they will thus create the conditions necessary for persons to be able to achieve their authentic and integral welfare.

A culture which recognises the eminent dignity of the worker will emphasise the subjective dimension of work. The value of any human work does not depend on the kind of work done; it is based on the fact that the one who does it is a person. There we have an ethical criterion whose implications cannot be overlooked.

Thus every person has a right to work, and this right must be recognised in a practical way by an effective commitment to resolving the tragic problem of unemployment in our country. The fact that unemployment keeps large sectors of our population, and notably the young, in a situation of marginalisation is intolerable and should not be exploited with low wages and poor working conditions on the part of the few who get jobs. For this reason, the creation of jobs is a primary social task facing individuals and private enterprise, as well as the government. As a general rule, in this as in other matters, the government has a subsidiary function; but often it can be called upon to intervene directly.

Wages, which cannot be considered a mere commodity, must enable workers and their families to have access to a truly human standard of living in the material, social, cultural and spiritual orders. It is the dignity of the person which constitutes the criterion for judging work, not the other way round. Whatever type of work, the workers must be able to perform it as an expression of their personality. There follows from this the necessity of a participation which, over and above a sharing in the fruits of work, should involve a truly communitarian dimension at the level of undertakings and responsibilities.

The priority of work over capital places an obligation in justice upon employers to consider the welfare of workers before the increase of profits. They have a moral obligation in making investments to think first of the common good.

The right to private property is inconceivable without responsibilities to the common good.
Access for everyone to the goods needed for a human, personal and family life worth of the name is a primary demand of social justice.

Solidarity is a direct requirement of human and supernatural brotherhood. The serious problems that occur today cannot be solved unless new fronts of solidarity are created. Solidarity among the workers, and with the workers, solidarity of the poor among themselves, solidarity with the poor to which the rich are called.

For this reason, we feel it is important for those in government to realise that obligations to the people, to the workers should take precedence over commitments to foreign investors. We need investors but let’s engage them in a manner that is beneficial to our people. A sense of justice, dignity is needed. There is need for the workers of KCM and other foreign investments to feel they are respected, they count by paying them reasonably.

Labels: CORRUPTION, LABOUR, MINERS, NEOLIBERALISM

posted by MrK @ 5:11 AM