Effect of work on family should always be considered - Archbishop

One could not insist on the benefit of work without considering its profound effect on the family, Archbishop Paul Cremona said today in his message for Worker's Day, being celebrated tomorrow.

Quoting from the late Pope John Paul II encyclical, Mgr Cremona said that if the family suffered and if marriage and the family as a result broke down, it would be society which suffered, now and in the future.

He invited those who had a genuine interest in workers and society to study deeply the late Pope's thoughts on workers in his writings, tomorrow being the day of his beatification.

On Worker's Day, he said, one reflected about the dignity of workers, the importance of work in the building of society, both directly and through the family, and on the unemployed or those who did not earn enough to get themselves out of poverty.

Pope John Paul II's message had always been that man should be placed at the centre of every initiative to never become of secondary value for some other consideration.

He described work as a fundamental aspect which required new and decisive attention. The Pope insisted on work as the fulcrum on which society is based.

He had called for a reflection of workers in the reality of a changing economy to always be made for working conditions to remain suitable. These, he had said, influenced the whole of society.

Work had an ethical value within itself and was clearly and directly bound to the fact that it was carried out freely and consciously man.

Economic crises were the result of bad decisions as were bad working conditions and workers who were suffering.

The late Pope had said that the central problem of social ethics was fair remuneration for the work one was doing. The whole process had to be organised and adapted in a way which respected human needs as well as life, primarily the family, while paying particular attention to one's age and sex.

A fair pay had to be taken in context of other considerations but it should not be the final consideration because it was always the worker who suffered.

The Pope had a special mention for workers in the agricultural industry, the disabled and asylum seekers who were usually exploited and found no organisation to defend them.

He also spoke on the reality of women in the workforce saying women deserved to carry out their work in accordance with their nature, without being discriminated against and without being excluded from work they were capable of doing.

Women's aspirations for their family and their specific role to give their share for the benefit of society also had to be respected.