Please note: This site is no longer being updated as the Social Action Office is now closed. Please feel free to use any information that may be useful to you.
Refresh Industrial
Relations
Click
here for the SAO Refresh
Australia! Campaign which includes a Briefing
Note: Refresh Industrial
Relations – Ensure balance in Work/Life
Choices |
Just Work
Since Pope Leo XIII’s landmark 1891 encyclical, Rerum
Novarum, the Church has provided important principles,
founded on a Gospel commitment to the dignity of workers,
to guide Catholics in making judgments about what is morally
sound with respect to workplace relations.
Pope John Paul’s
1981 encyclical, Laborem Exercens, reinforces
the fundamental principles espoused by Leo XIII and developed and supported in
encyclicals and statements issued by his successors including Pius XI, John XXIII
and Paul VI. Benedict
XVI has also made public statements supporting the dignity of workers in
the same vein as his predecessors.
In 2005, the Australian Bishops emphasised
the same principles of Catholic Social Teaching in a statement
on the Federal Government’s WorkChoices
legislation. They stressed the Government’s obligation
to balance the drive for economic growth with the demands of
social justice and the need to ensure that policies are fair
and equitable to all. As Catholics engage in public
debate on these issues, it is valuable for them to have
a clear understanding of what the Church continues to stress
as morally sound principles for relationships between employees
and employers.
On 1 May 2007, the Social Action Office, in partnership
with the Brisbane Archdiocesan Catholic Justice and Peace Commission,
co-hosted a Forum on Just Work. Below are links
to copies of two of the keynote addresses:
SAO Resources
Other Resources
Click here for the Social Justice Archive
