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ACSJC Briefing No. 2 - May 00
ACSJC BRIEFING
No. 2 - May 2000
From the Australian Catholic Social Justice Council, the national social
justice and human rights agency of the Catholic Church in Australia -
www.socialjustice.catholic.org.au
*****
IN THIS ISSUE
From the Secretariat -- Corroboree 2000: Sharing Our Future -- People's
Walk For Reconciliation -- Building Bridges: Communities of Faith Working
Together in Multicultural Australia -- Documentation: Pastoral Letter
for the Feast of St Joseph the Worker 1 May 2000 -- April News Monitor
-- May Social Justice Calendar -- Reflection: Our Labour Brings Creation
to Perfection
*****
FROM THE SECRETARIAT
It is easy, in a world like ours, to lose hope, to feel like we are not
making any difference. In this Easter season, when we celebrate in such
an intense way the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we are
reminded of the source of our hope. The struggle has already been won.
Life ultimately triumphs over death.
None of us can save the world - but we don't have to. We need only
play our part in building up the Reign of God which is already mysteriously
present in our world and which will reach its fullness only at the end
of time.
In the secular calendar too it has been a time for reflecting on
what it means to play our part in working for peace and justice.
As an 'Air Force brat' I've attended more ANZAC Day dawn services than
most peace activists I know. For me it is not a day to glorify war but
a day to remember very concretely what war means, to retrieve that gruesome
reality from Hollywood and propaganda.
War always means killing and maiming human being made in the image
and likeness of God. In the Taoist classic The Art of War, Master Sun,
a famous general of the Warring States period, concludes from direct experience
of war that "to win without fighting is best". ANZAC Day
is a time to reflect on whether or not the use of force can ever be justified.
Another important date was Monday's Feast of St Joseph the Worker.
In recent years ACSJC Chairman Bishop Kevin Manning has used this event
in the liturgical calendar to draw attention to justice issues in the
world of work. Previous pastoral statements for the Feast of St
Joseph the Worker have focused on industrial relations issues and unemployment.
This year's statement looks at the protection of employee entitlements
when businesses go broke.
We've been flat out at the Secretariat preparing for the forthcoming
Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference meeting. The Bishops meet in Conference
twice a year and on these occasions the ACSJC reports on its activities
via the Bishops' Committee for Justice, Development and Peace. Our annual
report for 1999 will be submitted and our action plan for 2000 will be
formally approved. We are also 'on call' during the Conference for advice
on issues, statements or actions.
One of the items on the agenda of the Committee for Justice, Development
and Peace is the review of the mandates of the ACSJC and of Caritas Australia.
They will also be considering a draft of the Social Justice Sunday Statement
for this year. The Statement is a reflection on the research on
the participation of women in the Catholic Church in Australia. Please
keep the Bishops in your prayers as they undertake these important tasks.
- Sandie Cornish (Chief Executive Officer)
*****
CORROBOREE 2000: SHARING OUR FUTURE
The Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation will present a draft document
for reconciliation at this event on the weekend of 27-28 May. The venue
is the Sydney Opera House. It is for 2000 invited guests, representative
of the Australian community, and the proceedings of the entire two days
will be broadcast on SBS TV.
Sadly, recent government media releases and comments have potentially
divided rather than unified Australia's response to this event.
Issues include: the federal government's deferment of the reconciliation
process; the refusal to apologise; its inability to deal appropriately
with mandatory sentencing; the attempts to talk down the destructive and
negative effects on the Aboriginal people of separating children from
their families, an issue often referred to as the Stolen Generation.
While some supporters of reconciliation favour a boycott of this
event, others believe that it is more important than ever to stand up
in public for the reconciliation process.
The ACSJC will be participating in the activities on both days.
*****
PEOPLE'S WALK FOR RECONCILIATION
This event, a walk across the Sydney Harbour Bridge, will take place on
Sunday 28 May. Please meet in Mount Street, North Sydney outside Mary
McKillop Chapel at 10.00 am for a 10.30 start. The idea is to walk
with other Catholic Church groups so that we are a large group, rather
than be lost in the anticipated thousands of walkers. The walk will take
at least two hours: Mount St, across the Harbour Bridge, to Darling Harbour
where there will be free concerts and entertainment. Come by train
to North Sydney, then it is a short walk up to Mount Street. The
bridge will be closed to traffic from early morning to late afternoon.
The Sea of Hands will be displayed in the Botanical Gardens. An ecumenical
service will then take place at St Mary's Cathedral at 4.00 pm.
There are events in other cities. For further information and updates,
the Council for Reconciliation's website is at www.austlii.edu.au/car
*****
BUILDING BRIDGES: COMMUNITIES OF FAITH WORKING TOGETHER IN MULTICULTURAL
AUSTRALIA
This conference, organised by the Australian Catholic Migrant and Refugee
Office and the Australian Catholic Social Justice Council, is scheduled
for 7-9 July, St Joseph's College, Hunters Hill, Sydney. It will focus
on practical ways in which people of faith can build bridges between various
communities. There will be an emphasis on sharing experiences of positive
action and ideas for further action.
Speakers will include: Bishop Barry Hickey (Chairman, Catholic
Bishops' Committee for Migrants and Refugees), Tan Le (Young Australian
of the Year 1998), Neville Roach (Chairman, Council for Multicultural
Australia), Robert Fitzgerald (Community Services Commissioner NSW), Margaret
Piper (Executive Director, Refugee Council of Australia), and more.
Please contact the ACSJC Secretariat if you do not receive an application
form (contact details at the foot of this newsletter).
*****
DOCUMENTATION
PASTORAL LETTER FOR THE FEAST OF ST JOSEPH THE WORKER 1 MAY 2000
It is opportune on the Feast of St Joseph the Worker during this year
of Jubilee, to consider the rights of all those workers who have been
made redundant by company insolvencies and who have not been paid their
entitlements. Theirs is a debt that must be paid.
When companies become insolvent workers can lose jobs, and even
their entitlements. The closure of Oakdale Colliery in May 1999,
Braybrook Manufacturing in September 1999 and National Textiles in January
2000, all focused attention on this issue: workers were denied the
wages owing to them for work already done; unused long service leave and
annual leave, superannuation, pay in lieu of notice, redundancy pay, and
other entitlements. The hardship of unemployment was compounded
by the loss of these entitlements and by the bitter injustice of the situation.
People with any sense of justice are rightly outraged to think
that companies can enter into arrangements with the specific purpose of
avoiding liability for employee entitlements, and that company directors
can simply ignore the rights of employees to what is theirs. No
one can countenance employees, some having provided many faithful years
of service to a company, being treated simply as unsecured creditors.
The Government, the Opposition, and the Union Movement have all
suggested ways to protect employees when companies go broke. While
their preferred schemes may differ, all agree that there should be sanctions
against company directors who enter into agreements that may force an
organization into insolvency or who enter into an agreement that avoids
the payment of what is rightfully owing to the employees.
Employers have a moral obligation to pay employees their due.
This includes the payment of entitlements when a company becomes insolvent.
The issue is a basic matter of justice as Leo XIII explained in Rerum
Novarum:
"Among the most important duties of employers the principal one is
to give every worker what is due to them. To defraud anyone of the
wage due to them is a great crime … Finally the rich must religiously
refrain from harming in any way the savings of the workers either by coercion,
or by fraud, or by the arts of usury…" (Rerum Novarum, n 32)
Accrued entitlements are an important form of saving for many working
people and employers ensure these are not lost. They must exercise
due diligence to ensure that all entitlements will be paid should the
company cease trading or become insolvent. Employers have a moral
responsibility not to place accrued entitlements at risk as these funds
have been earned by the same employees whose labour has generated the
company's profits.
Governments too have a duty to respond to the situation by providing
a legislative framework that will ensure that employees are, in practice,
able to receive their entitlements. Amendments to the Corporations
Law can provide one part of a framework for protection but will not be
sufficient in itself to ensure that employee entitlements are adequately
protected.
The Australian Catholic Commission for Employment Relations and
the Australian Catholic Social Justice Council:
* Support amendments to the Corporations Law that will effectively deter
company directors from not meeting their obligations to employees;
* Support the payment of compensation by company directors who do not
engage in due diligence with respect to meeting their obligations to employees;
* Support the prosecution of company directors who enter into uncommercial
transactions that may affect the solvency of the organization or that
may affect the payment to creditors;
* Support the inclusion of provisions that would protect employees from
an organizations that modifies its company structure n order to avoid
employee entitlements;
* Suggest that proper disclosure about company structures to employees
should be provided by directors;
* Suggest that employee entitlements should be recovered from related
companies, where a company structure has been modified; and
* Seek reconsideration of the current priority allocated to employees
as unsecured creditors.
Workers have an inalienable dignity and rights. They should
never be treated as just part of the production process. Justice
demands that their wages and entitlements must always be paid in full.
- Bishop Kevin Manning (Bishop of Parramatta, Chairman, Australian Catholic
Social Justice Council)
*****
APRIL NEWS MONITOR
ARCHBISHOP FAULKNER CALLS FOR BROADER UNDERSTANDING OF 'PRO-LIFE': Adelaide's
Archbishop has called for the pro-life campaign to encompass all "crimes
against life", from violence against women to malnutrition and poverty.
THINK OF REDUNDANT WORKERS - BISHOP MANNING: Catholics should consider
the rights of workers made redundant by company insolvencies and not paid
their entitlements, said ACSJC Chairman Bishop Kevin Manning.
CHURCH TAKES ON AFRICAN DEBT: The Catholic Church in Italy has set up
a charitable fund to pay off debt owed to Italy by two of the poorest
African countries, Guinea and Zambia.
ANNIVERSARY OF GUATEMALAN BISHOP'S DEATH: The Catholic church in Guatemala
is commemorating the second anniversary of the murder of a leading human
rights campaigner Bishop Juan Gerardi.
POPE CALLS FOR END TO RACISM: In his Easter message, Pope John Paul II
has called on humanity to renounce racism and xenophobia.
MIGRANT OFFICE WARNS ON KOSOVAR RULING: The Australian Catholic Migrant
and Refugee service has warned that the determination of the Government
to repatriate Kosovar refugees could demean Australia’s refugee support
efforts.
JESUIT CENTRE HIGHLIGHTS HIGH RATE OF ABORIGINAL IMPRISONMENT: A statement
from the Ignatius social research centre in Melbourne says the diversionary
programs to keep young offenders out of jail in the Northern Territory
should not distract from the unjust and disproportionate rate of imprisonment
of Aboriginal young offenders elsewhere.
SVDP PLEDGE TO HOMELESS: The St Vincent de Paul Society in Queensland
has pledged to step up efforts to fight rising homelessness.
SOUTH AFRICAN BISHOP CALLS FOR SOLIDARITY WITH THE POOR: South African
Bishop Kevin Dowling has argued that changing the status of the poor holds
the key to global transformation.
NUN SAYS YEARS OF DEATH PENALTY HAS NOT DETERRED CRIME: Use of the death
penalty has not deterred crime, says Providence Sister Dorothy Rasche,
who has worked in prison ministry for 20 years.
TURN APOLOGY INTO ACTION - ACSJC & NATSICC TO PM: The Australian
Catholic Social Justice Council and the National Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander Catholic Council have welcomed the Prime Minister's apology
for the offence caused by the Government's submission on the Stolen Generations.
POPE CAUTIONS ANNAN ON IDEOLOGY: In an audience at the Vatican, Pope
John Paul told UN Secretary General Kofi Annan that ideology is preventing
international institutions from addressing pressing global problems such
as war, poverty, and natural disasters.
CHURCHES ASKED TO MEDIATE BETWEEN PAPUANS AND GOVERNMENT: Rights advocates
have called on Churches of (West) Papua to serve as mediator between the
government and Papuans in dealing with the latter's separatist demands.
PRIEST SAYS TALK-BACK GURUS DON'T UNDERSTAND 'POETRY' OF ABORIGINAL DESPAIR:
Fr Frank Fletcher, a longtime pastor to Sydney's aboriginal community,
spoke out against community hostility created by radio 'talkback gurus'
who don't understand the continuing pain of aboriginal people.
ARCHBISHOP SAYS STOLEN GENERATION DEBATE IGNORES TOTAL SUFFERING: Archbishop
John Bathersby of Brisbane said the Federal Government is ignoring the
bigger picture of the total suffering of aborigines through the dispossession
of their land and the destruction of their culture.
BISHOP SAYS GOVT MISSING THE POINT OVER STOLEN GENERATIONS: Bishop Chris
Saunders of Broome says the Federal Government is missing the point in
asserting that the Stolen Generations did not exist because only ten per
cent of children were forcibly removed.
- courtesy Catholic Telecommunications, stories in detail at www.cathtelecom.com/news/004
*****
MAY SOCIAL JUSTICE CALENDAR
1 St Joseph the Worker; Jubilee Celebration for Workers
3 World Press Freedom Day
3 Family Week commences
5 Blessed Edmund Rice - founder of Christian Brothers died
8 Vietnam War Moratorium March in Melbourne, 1970; WWII ends in Europe,
1945; Simply Sharing Week
12 International Day for Nurses
13 Franklin/Lower Gordon Wild Rivers National Park proclaimed, 1981
14 Mothers Day; World Day of Prayer for Vocations
15 International Day of Families, Week of Prayer for Christian Unity commences
17 World Communications Day
18 80th Birthday of Pope John Paul II; Jubilee Celebration for Clergy
21 Murder of Australian Josephite Sister Irene McCormack in Peru, 1991
22-25 Bishops Committee for Justice Development and Peace Regional Social
Justice Conference
24 Foundation of World Council of Churches, 1948
25 Our Lady Help of Christians, Patron of Australia
Jubilee Celebration for Scientists
26 National Sorry Day - Journey of Healing
27 Aboriginal People gained the right to vote in 1967 Referendum; National
Reconciliation Week; Birth of Rachel Carson, 1907
28 Amnesty International founded, 1962
31 The Visitation of Mary to her cousin Elizabeth; World No-Tobacco Day
*****
REFLECTION - OUR LABOUR BRINGS CREATION TO PERFECTION
God of creation, the world, all that grows in it, all that roams it, and
ourselves too are the work of your hands. By your gift they are also our
work. Guide and govern us so that our labour may bring your creation to
perfection. Give to men and women work that enhances their human
dignity, and draws them closer in service to their sisters and brothers.
Have compassion on those who despair of ever achieving work. Direct the
efforts of your church to champion their plight and bring them hope. (Adapted
from the Opening Prayer for the Mass for the Blessing of Human Labour)
*****
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a printer-friendly (PDF) version of this newsletter, go to www.socialjustice.catholic.org.au/pdf/briefing1-005.pdf
Australian Catholic Social Justice Council, Leo XIII House, 19 MacKenzie
Street, North Sydney NSW 2060. Tel: (02) 9956 5811, Fax: (02) 9956 5782,
Email: admin@acsjc.org.au
