Ethical Teachings of the Torah

The Challenge of Money: Wages and Labor; Employer and Employee [part 4]

Perhaps the greatest economic fear for humans is the uncertainty of material well-being in their old age or in ill- health. Throughout history there have been many and varied attempts to insure against this uncertainty. In modern times, Socialism, Social Security, life-long employment, or insurance schemes - or a mixture of them, were all prompted by this need to provide economic security. All these attempts to provide security, however, have costs, either to the employer or the employee or the society-community-state.
Is there in Judaism any understanding that the employer-employee relation- ship imposes an obligation on the employer beyond the contractual conditions or those of custom, for the employee’s tenure or his old age? Halakhically, there is no obligation to continue to employ anyone, even where the employer simply wants to cease operation for personal or non- economic reasons. However, what about the employee’s financial future after being retrenched or no longer gainfully employed? Over and above this material question there are spiritual and psychological effects of being redundant, no longer of any worth to society.
There are two negatives to guaranteed lifelong employment notwithstanding the security it provides:
It weakens the moral link between productive efficient work and employment and wages for the job done, promoting laziness, fraud and disguised unemployment.
All attempts to provide security inevitably lead to a loss of the freedom of movement, expression, property and even of human personal rights; the degree and scope of loss correlated closely to the extent of the security provided.
In contrast, halakha insists that a Jewish worker is not a slave: “A worker has the right to stop work whenever he likes [remaining liable for damages suffered thereby by the employer]; this right flows from the verse ‘for they are slaves to Me’; and not slaves to other slaves [the Jewish employer] (Torat Kohanim, Vayikra 25:42)” (Choshen Mishpat 333:3). The Rama adds, “Even a teacher or a Torah scribe may not hire themselves out to be in a householder’s house for more than three years”. Such rulings question the whole institution of tenured employment.
Severance pay as a form of security, has long been practiced by Jewish communities, conceptually based on the grant made to an Eved Ivri at the end of his service (D’varim 15:14). The Sefer HaChinuch writes that, “He who has employed a fellow Jew will upon termination of the work, grant him some of the wealth that G-d has blessed him with” (Mitzva 482).
Another form of protection granted to the aged or infirm employee by our sources is that of the pension: “Since Rabbi Zusshinder has served faithfully as a dayan for many years and now, due to old age, is unable to fulfill this task, it is fitting that the community provide for him in an honorable fashion” (Pinkas Kehillat Poznan, enactment 189). Similarly, Rambam’s ruling that all communal appointments are hereditary, is inter-alai a means for providing for the widow and other dependents, through employment of the son.
Alternatively, security could take the form of assistance in the job for an aged or infirm employee: “The Chazan of Huesca after serving faithfully for 38 years, now wishes to have his son substitute for some of the duties that he can no longer do. Surely, the congregation did not believe that a man can maintain his strength and ability all his life without sickness or other difficulties suffered by all normal people. Therefore the Chazan is entitled to have his son assist him [at their expense] since this was tacitly understood by all parties” (T’shuvot HaRashba 1:300).
The underlying rationale of all these forms of protection seems to be, “and your brother shall live with you” (Vayikra 25:36). “It is customary for every court in Jewry to force the rich to perform all those acts that are worthy and just even if these are not his legal obligations” (Mordechai, Bava Metzia 24b). Nevertheless, unless the Torah’s balance between Tzedek and Tzedaka is maintained, we face social, economic and moral ills which make a travesty of all the well- meaning attempts.
Post 2008 calls for halakhic scholarship to re-examine tzedaka of long-term protection, in view of the uncertainty of the individual firm to meet these obligations in open markets and globalization. Even the state community considered in Judaism an entity which is never poor, faces a problem as the ultimate financier of such protection, given the increased number of people to be supported through a declining pool of productive supporters.

• Other Ethical Teachings of the Torah
• Today is the Birthday of the World, whether as Children or as Servants [2] by Dr. Meir Tamari
• Funding Social Costs - Taxation [2]
• THE CHALLENGE OF MONEY - Funding Social Costs - Taxation [1]