The Church and the workplace

I was recently given a copy of The Dignity and Rights of Labour by Cardinal Henry Edward Manning. It contained a handwritten note:

Cardinal Manning (pictured) was a dominant figure in the 19th century English Church, partly because of his support for the poor and his commitment to social justice. His mediation of a successful conclusion to the famous London Dock Strike of 1889 demonstrated his practical touch.

The fact that his book was given to a grade six student reflected a time when the Catholic Church in Australia was a prominent advocate for social justice and, in particular, the rights of workers and their families. It was based on a deep conviction about the dignity and rights of labour.

Cardinal Manning also influenced the drafting of Pope Leo XIII's encyclical Rerum Novarum, promulgated on 15 May 1891. The Encyclical was the origin of modern Catholic social teaching, articulating clearly the importance of work and of workers' rights.

At the time the Australian colonies were debating key issues about the powers of the proposed Commonwealth. The Encylical influenced, and bolstered the arguments of, Henry Bourne Higgins, a leading proponent of federal power to settle industrial disputes by conciliation and arbitration. Higgins was the judge who later decided the Harvester Case that established the concept of the Living Wage.

The 120th anniversary of Rerum Novarum occurs the day before the hearing of final submissions in Fair Work Australia's Annual Wage Review 2011. It is timely to ask what its principles might mean in a century that could never have been imagined by Leo XIII and Cardinal Manning.

Poor and vulnerable workers are still with us, and in increasing numbers. Wage-setting has failed low income workers and their families. By any accepted measure of poverty, a family with children that is dependent on the National Minimum Wage (now $569.90 per week) is living in poverty. Family payments do not cover the poverty gap.

We also have an underclass of people who are not employed in any substantial work. Irregular casual and part time work is not a way out of poverty. Many are young, often with children, in dysfunctional domestic arrangements. They will never enter the mainstream of society through engagement in work which pays a decent wage and recognises their innate dignity.

The road, if any, to a decent life for the unemployed and workers who have a marginal connection with work will be