We live in a cottage with a large compound which is what my parents bequeathed to us.
Every morning we have two domestic helpers who come around 8 am in the morning and spend the day doing different things inside and outside the house. As there is always something to do, their day is full and often overflowing. Thanks to them, the house and its surroundings have remained habitable and yielding.
The two have been working for my parents for thirty five years and we feel touched by their kindness, loyalty and care. We now have a third person who joined them, whom we have been helping to develop some skills for self employment.
These three people have provided some understanding about the challenges the working class faces. The unskilled workers are largely daily wage earners without any social or medical support. They do not have regular jobs or fixed income. They do not get paid holidays or retirement benefits.
Most of us would not have been able to function without the help of this faithful support system.
I wonder whether each of us who employs such people regularly, would offer some long term benefits for them by helping them to develop saving habits and ourselves contributing towards their social benefits!
The parable of Jesus of all those who went to the vineyard to work, getting the same wage at the end of the day no matter what time they went to work is an introduction to a different work ethics we are invited to consider.
We pay others not because of what they deserve or are entitled to get, but because of goodness of God we are called to share and communicate! This is the ethos of inclusiveness in making workers feel that, they are our brothers and sisters! It is a long journey, but a necessary journey to have this consciousness to see others as fellow travellers in the journey of life rather than just as ‘our employees’.
M.C.Mathew(text and photo)
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