How much is your work worth? One of the most challenging stories in the Bible is a parable that Jesus of Nazareth told about an owner of a vineyard who hired some casual workers – the landless and exploited day labourers of 1st century Palestine. He hired some at the beginning of the day for an agreed price. He hired some more at noon, 3 and 5 in the afternoon. He paid the last group the same sum as the ones he’d hired at the beginning of the day. The ones who’d worked the longest obviously complained; but they got no sympathy from the vineyard owner, who reminded them that they’d agreed to work for a certain wage; and he had paid them that. It was up to him how much he paid everyone else.
Recent interpretations of this parable have focussed not so much on a religious interpretation but an economic one; that Jesus of Nazareth was commenting not so much on the character of God, in the person of the vineyard owner, who is generous in a way that human beings, addicted to comparisons, find unfair. Instead, Jesus was commenting critically on an economic system that ensured the lowest paid, with no contractual obligations to an employer, remained at the mercy of that employer.
Just this week, two stories have reminded me of that ancient parable; the argument over whether prisoners working as part of their rehabilitation will take away jobs from those who would otherwise do them; and the row over the treatment of volunteers or apprentices getting work experience stewarding large public events in order to find paid work as part of the Olympic stewarding team.
Taken together with the recent Beecroft report recommending a greater ability for employers to fire – and hire; and the ways in which our labour markets are regulated become part of the national debate on the best ways out of the economic crisis we are in. Arguments often polarise unhelpfully between left and right focussing either on protective labour laws or the freedom of employers with each held up to be the best way to stimulate and maintain prosperity.
I recently saw for the first time the 1946 film “It’s a Wonderful Life” starring Jimmy Stewart. I was surprised how contemporary the subject, even though sentimentally expressed; and the scene during which Stewart’s character stops a run on the bank by using his own money to give his investors only the amount they said they needed was a meditation on the themes of trust, accountable relationships and honest dealings. These small town morals won’t help the Spanish government of course; a national economy is not a household budget. But when economic times are hard, the temptation to exploit one another grows; and compassion fatigue is pervasive. It takes nerve in times of economic difficulty not to sacrifice values of fairness in the service of maximising the bottom line. But the courage shown in hard times dignifies the work done, as well as the ones who do it.
Recent interpretations of this parable have focussed not so much on a religious interpretation but an economic one; that Jesus of Nazareth was commenting not so much on the character of God, in the person of the vineyard owner, who is generous in a way that human beings, addicted to comparisons, find unfair. Instead, Jesus was commenting critically on an economic system that ensured the lowest paid, with no contractual obligations to an employer, remained at the mercy of that employer.
Just this week, two stories have reminded me of that ancient parable; the argument over whether prisoners working as part of their rehabilitation will take away jobs from those who would otherwise do them; and the row over the treatment of volunteers or apprentices getting work experience stewarding large public events in order to find paid work as part of the Olympic stewarding team.
Taken together with the recent Beecroft report recommending a greater ability for employers to fire – and hire; and the ways in which our labour markets are regulated become part of the national debate on the best ways out of the economic crisis we are in. Arguments often polarise unhelpfully between left and right focussing either on protective labour laws or the freedom of employers with each held up to be the best way to stimulate and maintain prosperity.
I recently saw for the first time the 1946 film “It’s a Wonderful Life” starring Jimmy Stewart. I was surprised how contemporary the subject, even though sentimentally expressed; and the scene during which Stewart’s character stops a run on the bank by using his own money to give his investors only the amount they said they needed was a meditation on the themes of trust, accountable relationships and honest dealings. These small town morals won’t help the Spanish government of course; a national economy is not a household budget. But when economic times are hard, the temptation to exploit one another grows; and compassion fatigue is pervasive. It takes nerve in times of economic difficulty not to sacrifice values of fairness in the service of maximising the bottom line. But the courage shown in hard times dignifies the work done, as well as the ones who do it.
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