AECQ : Humanizing Work
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Humanizing Work

The Social Affairs Committee
of the Assembly of Quebec Catholic Bishops
Message of May 1st, 2003 | Version française

1. As we observe May 1st, the Social Affairs Committee of the Assembly of Quebec Catholic Bishops wishes to express its solidarity with workers by proposing some issues for reflection on the increasing precariousness of employment in our society. This message articulates the Committee's profound uneasiness with the consequences of this uncertainty on people and their living conditions. It reiterates that the dignity of each human being must be recognized and consequently we must find ways to humanize the work environment.

Working conditions

2. Previous communiqués from the Social Affairs Committee have addressed this problematic situation. On May 1, 1989, we stated that these circumstances often are accompanied by inadequate employment. As a result, paralyzing insecurity has divided and stressed society and affected its capacity to meet challenges, as evidenced by the declining birth rate. [1] Far from improving, the conditions of the past decade have only accentuated the uncertainty of work.

Statistically, the unemployment rate has decreased in Québec as in the rest of Canada. This is explained by the growth of part time, temporary and contract work. The number of full time employees continues to decline [2] and the jobs available are often only term contracts or restricted to applicants with highly specialized skills. The shrinking full-time workforce, coupled by the increasing lack of job security, is explained to a certain extent by the present context of economic globalization, from a neo-liberal perspective. Stability in the workplace is threatened by ferocious competition. Another serious consequence of globalization is the relocation of businesses to countries where labour and material costs are significantly less. Free trade agreements tend to reduce the capacity of the State to legislate on behalf of public interest and protect certain acquired social rights, particularly when it comes to production and labour. Given free reign, the current world economy contributes to augment instability and precariousness among workers.

3. One and a half million non-unionized Québec workers (60% of the working population) [3] are among the most severely affected by these unstable conditions. Approximately 200 000 of them hold jobs that pay minimum wage. The Labor Code (Normes du Travail) has established employment conditions for non-unionized workers. Despite important revisions to the Code, there is no assurance that those in unstable working conditions would have rights similar to those guaranteed to full-time employees. In certain cases, their situation resembles a type of indentured slavery that leaves them open to abuse. They may be categorized with autonomous workers thereby exempting employers from providing social benefits. People waiting for their immigration papers are particularly vulnerable. The Social Affairs Committee explicitly recommends adequate protection and non-discrimination in employment practices.

4. Increasingly difficult working conditions have serious effects on people. In 2002, an extensive survey of 227 specialists in employee assistance programs revealed some alarming statistics. [4] Overwork and stress are omnipresent phenomena that result in increased mental health problems. In some sectors, such as health care, managers are expected to accomplish more with fewer resources. Employees suffer the repercussions of this predicament that ultimately affects the general population's accessibility to services. According to Health Canada, from 1991 to 2001 the level of professional satisfaction has dropped from 62% to 45%.

5. This high percentage of dissatisfaction among workers calls for serious reflection. Will access to regular and well-paid employment become a privilege enjoyed by a minority? Will the available jobs ever enable people to break the bonds of poverty? Has the current economic globalization created a structure whereby it is impossible to improve working conditions?

The future of humanity

6. Fundamentally we must question the future of humanity in a world driven by financial and technical forces. What value does our society attribute to individuals beyond their productivity or their economic or social status? Are we truly searching for ways to reconcile our society's economic health with its human development? Are we prepared to have the workplace increasingly threatened by dehumanization? Can we afford to ignore the specific requirements of our own "human mission"? [5] What would the consequences be for a society that would become so blind and irresponsible?

7. The result of this on-going precariousness in the workplace reflects the subordination of what makes us human to the economics of the market place. This can lead to a false justification for the sacrifice of vast populations. Our society appears to have adopted a "supermarket mentality" where money, market forces, and assets have the highest values. Everything is considered "merchandise," even human beings. Continuing this analogy, any interest applied to workers is based on how profitable the group appears to the employer. This leads one to trivialize what distinguishes us as human beings and equate people with useable and disposable objects. Are we prepared to witness the end of humanism, to people's openness to transcendence, to an "otherness" of life and the world, that is their pathway to fulfillment and happiness?

8. This utilitarian and limited vision of human beings is not restricted to the workplace and can be seen influencing education and popular culture. We must exercise great vigilance in order to prevent this perception that threatens our corporative, institutional, and personal lives. We acknowledge that ecclesiastical and religious milieus must also question the way they reconcile economic imperatives with an integral respect for workers'dignity, particularly in salary policies and management of personnel.

9. Looking at the situation from a biblical perspective, God created humankind in his image to cooperate in his work of creation (Genesis 1 : 27-28). Men and women have a fundamental right to work. However this does not mean employment that reduces them to mere instruments of production but rather work that fully respects their dignity as human beings and enables them to fulfill "the potential inscribed in (their) nature." [6] The Christian experience is a human adventure that is open to the creativity of life in abundance and an unprecedented call to participate in God's life. The openness of one individual, Jesus, a carpenter's son, to the Absolute, established the inviolable dignity of each human being.

10. Upholding our human dignity requires us to defend every aspect : material, social, moral, and spiritual. Our human dignity prevails over principles of unlimited growth, the deification of the marketplace, and the quest for profit as the absolute rules of economic life. It also demands that we make the formation of authentic human beings the first priority of a fraternal society. "Are we able (...) in a Québec that is essentially pluralist, to give ourselves or take back a reference to "transcendence," to an unconditional respect for human dignity, by establishing as our criterion the capacity to honor this reference first of all in (...) people who are suffering, excluded, forgotten, and are not considered profitable?" [7]

11. We are convinced that our on-going search for justice in Québec society will enable us to reach our goal of solidarity and together we will find the means that will lead to a true humanization of the workplace. Here are several examples of people and projects that we encourage :

Conclusion

12. Our society is taking many steps to preserve human dignity and respect for social values. It is open to God's work in our lives as evidenced through history. "My Father is still working, and I also am working (John 5 :17). It is incumbent upon us to assume our social responsibility by tirelessly pursuing the human dimension in the workplace and in our communities.

Members of the Social Affairs Committee : Msgr. Gilles Lussier, President, Msgr. Gérard Drainville, Msgr. Eugène Tremblay, Msgr. Louis Dicaire, Patrick Arsenault, René Guay, Gisèle Marquis.

Legal deposit, 2nd trimester 2003
Bibliothèque nationale du Québec
ISBN 2-89279-079-4

[1 ] Social Affairs Committee of the AQCB, "Precarious employment - Precarious society", May 1, 1989. See also the message on May 1, 1998 : "Precariousness, the new standard of work?"

[2] Statistics Canada, Enquête sur la population active, 2002. Cf. La Presse, November 9, 2002.

[3] Pauline Gravel, "Une coalition presse Québec d'adopter de nouvelles normes minimales du travail", in Le Devoir, November 4, 2002.

[4] Marie-Claude Malboeuf, "Le travail rend-il fou?" in La Presse, November 1, 2002.

[5] Daniel Jacques, La révolution technique, Essai sur le devoir d'humanité, Boréal, Montréal, 2002.

[6] John Paul II, Laborem exercens, No. 6, Fides, 1981.

[7] M. Beaudin, G. Côté, J. Racine, "Violence et altérité. Un chemin pour sortir de la barbarie" in Possibles, Vol 27, No. 1-2, Winter-Spring 2003, p. 226. (free translation)