Employment

Work is regarded both as a necessary evil and a fundamental good. Employees want both to be compensated for having to work and to be protected against not having to. The obligations both to and of employees are similarly complex. In most respects the relationship is an internal one, both parties working together in a common enterprise which constitutes the ground of their mutual obligations, tempered by the employer’s having the greater say, and therefore the greater responsibility. The identification of the employee with his firm is not, and never should be, complete, and conflicts of loyalty can arise, particularly over questions of confidentiality. As regards wages and other emoluments the relationship is an external one, in which bargaining is best done collectively by trade unions, which also have other important roles. It is a fundamental mistake to think of jobs as goodies, and legislation designed to hand them out to deserving recipients is often counter-productive. Nevertheless, in some circumstances a businessman should consider special claims for employment, and may be able to go some way towards meeting them, although attempts by the State to engineer full employment have patently failed.