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“Facilitating access to employment and offering help”, so that work may “be decent, protected in its rights and clear, in a culture of public accountability that calls for knowledge and respect of the rules, but also a gaze that is able to see the
person behind procedures and legal requirements”. In short, to help ensure
“good work for others”. These were Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia”s words on
Thursday afternoon, 30 June, at the opening of the seventh labour festival in
Rome.
The festival was organized by the National Council of Labour Consultants, to which, during the Jubilee audience that morning, Pope Francis offered encouragement in their pursuit of “the goal of full and decent employment, because work gives dignity”. On the heels of the papal magisterium Archbishop Paglia observed that today is “it is more necessary than ever to have a culture of work that exceeds that of simple welfarism; that helps young people to recognize the human sense of work; that accompanies every worker in seeking and defending his dignity; that is firmly opposed to illegal employment and exploiting the weak; and that places this issue at the center of civil concern; that teaches people to avoid, even in times of crisis and employment shortages, the temptation to be satisfied with inhuman conditions and wages, and a lack of minimal conditions of safety and legality”.
Hence the President of the Pontifical Council for the Family made the
invitation to “make every effort for decent employment, carried out with respect for the environment, the right balance between work time and rest, and attentiveness to preserving family dimensions”. In this sense the “precious contribution, starting with the acquired experience” of labour consultants “and in continuous dialogue with all other stakeholders”, can be offered to “legislators, who called to continuously improve laws and devices of implementation that govern this vital human experience”.
