Dignity of labour explained

The dignity of labour or the dignity of work is the philosophical holding that all types of jobs are respected equally, and no occupation is considered superior and none of the jobs should be discriminated on any basis. This view holds that all types of work (jobs) are necessary in a society and it is absolutely wrong to consider any work good or bad: the work itself is a dignity.

Scottish philosopher Thomas Carlyle has been cited as "the first to espouse the 'dignity of work'".^[1] In Past and Present (1843), he wrote:

Labour is Life: from the inmost heart of the Worker rises his god-given Force, the sacred celestial Life-essence breathed into him by Almighty God; from his inmost heart awakens him to all nobleness,—to all knowledge, 'self-knowledge' and much else, so soon as Work fitly begins.^[2]

Incumbent U.S. President Joe Biden made restoring "the dignity of work" a central tenet of his 2020 campaign and administration.^{[3] [4]}

About

Social reformers such as Basava and his contemporary Sharanas, as well as Mahatma Gandhi, were prominent advocates of the dignity of labour.^[5]

The dignity of labour is one of the major themes in Christian ethics,^[6] and as such, it is upheld by the Anglican Communion,^[7] in Catholic social teaching, in Methodist principles,^[8] and in Reformed theology.^[9]

In Roman Catholicism, usually titled "The dignity of work and the rights of workers" the affirmation of the dignity of human labour is found in several papal encyclicals, most notably Pope John Paul II's Laborem Exercens, published 15 September 1981.^[10]

In his 2021 book The Tyranny of Merit, philosopher Michael Sandel says that a spiritual revolution that celebrates the dignity of labour rather than meritocracy is the way to rectify the loss of faith in institutions evidenced in populism.^[11]

See also

• Critique of work
• Decent work

Further reading

Books

• Book: Hodson, Randy . Dignity at Work . 2001 . Cambridge University Press . 978-0-521-77812-1 .
• Book: Lamont, Michèle . The Dignity of Working Men: Morality and the Boundaries of Race, Class, and Immigration . 2009 . Harvard University Press . 978-0-674-03988-9.
• Book: Gomez, Napoleon . Collapse of Dignity: The Story of a Mining Tragedy and the Fight Against Greed and Corruption in Mexico . 2013 . BenBella Books . 978-1-939529-26-8 .
• Book: Bal, Matthijs . Dignity in the Workplace: New Theoretical Perspectives . 2017 . Springer . 978-3-319-55245-3 .
• Book: Willen, Sarah S. . Fighting for Dignity: Migrant Lives at Israel's Margins . 2019 . University of Pennsylvania Press . 978-0-8122-5134-0.

Journals

• Spencer . T . 13 January 1844 . Dignity of Labour . Chambers's Edinburgh Journal . 2 . limited . 32-32.
• Devas . C S . October 1887 . The Rights and Dignity of Labour . The Dublin Review . 18 . 2 . 467–469 . limited.
• Sarkar . Santanu . 2007 . The Struggle to be a Part: Story of Dignity of Indian Labour . The Indian Journal of Labour Economics . 50 . 2 . ResearchGate.
• King . Barry . 2010 . On the new dignity of labour . Ephemera Journal . 10 . 3/4 . 285–302.
• Nkosi . Lethiwe . 2011 . Kenneth Kaunda : the dignity of labour . African Yearbook of Rhetoric . 2 . 3 . 61–66 . 10520/EJC168753 .

Articles

• Web site: 2 July 1853 . The Dignity of Labor . Scientific American.
• Blackie . J S . January 1879 . The Dignity of Labour . . 20 . 837–840.
• Web site: Somavia . Juan . 31 March 2015 . Valuing the dignity of work . Human Development Reports UNDP.
• Web site: Jones . William P. . Summer 2020 . The Dignity of Labor . Dissent Magazine.

Notes and References

1. Web site: Rowland . Tim . 'Labor is Life' or 'Workers of the world, unite'? Future of capitalism lies in the middle . 2023-03-18 . Herald-Mail Media . en-US.
2. Web site: The Project Gutenberg eBook of Collected Works, Volume XIII. Past and Present, by Thomas Carlyle. . 2023-04-08 . www.gutenberg.org.
3. Web site: House . The White . 2022-09-05 . Remarks by President Biden Celebrating Labor Day and the Dignity of American Workers . 2023-02-28 . The White House . en-US.
4. Web site: House . The White . 2023-02-08 . Remarks of President Joe Biden – State of the Union Address as Prepared for Delivery . 2023-02-28 . The White House . en-US.
5. Web site: Suryanarayanan . A. N. . 2009 . Dignity of labour . The Deccan Herald.
6. Book: Osborn, Andrew Rule. Christian Ethics. 4 July 2016. 1940. Oxford University Press. en. 64. This conception of the divine dignity of work is distinctive of Hebrew and Christian Ethics..
7. Book: Norman, Edward. An Anglican Catechism. 1 May 2003. A&C Black. en . 9780826467003. 146. The Church upholds the dignity of labour, whether it is in productive or service work, or whether it is in the rearing of children and the maintenance of the home..
8. Book: Bundy, Colin. The Rise and Fall of the South African Peasantry. 1979. University of California Press. en. 9780520037540. 39. Methodist teaching, especially, favoured the creation of wage-earners and stressed the dignity of labour and desirability of manual skills..
9. Book: Ogier, Darryl Mark. Reformation and Society in Guernsey. 1996. Boydell & Brewer. en. 9780851156033. 173. Work discipline was engendered through such measures, and through the general (Calvinist-inspired) emphasis on the dignity of labour in one's calling..
10. Web site: The Dignity of Work and the Rights of Workers . United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
11. Book: Sandel, Michael J. . The tyranny of merit: what's become of the common good? . 2021 . Penguin Books . 978-0-14-199117-7 . London.