Legal obligations vs moral / ethical obligations - when a law fails to work ... then mankind is challenged to use its heart and common sense

There are legal obigations printed in law books. Some are fulfilled, some are skipped for whatever reasons. The law on earth is relative and of inferior value compared to God's law of love. Love requires to be:

• honest
• apply equal measure and equal rights to all
• apply grace and mercy before applying law or punishment
• to treat all with dignity
• to give all equal chances in life
• to always be true to God above all
• to always be loyal to God above all

While the law never writes about love or moral values nor ethical or spiritual values - true moral and spiritual values are a firm and absolute part of every single human being. Hence no matter what the law requires, each and every person has an eternal and infinitely valid mandate to apply all moral and spiritual values to his work and entire life - eternally and in absolutely every single situation of any kind!

Hence when hearing about an illegal situation or a situation where people are abused or exploited, then it is the spiritual responsibility of that person gaining knowledge about such situations of abuse to intervene and to investigate or initiate a formal investigation for the protection of abused or exploited ones.

In the case of the ongoing exploitation of employees by hotel restaurant swiss chalet - angeles city - Philippines - the Dept of Labor and Employment, after having received precise knowledge of ongoing and long lasting under-wages appears to have nothing done for all the 30+ remaining employees being underpaid since many years. The currently ongoing hearing relates only to the 3 woman who had the courage to "fight" for their law given rights. All other 30+ employees currently appear to have no right to receive the back pay of outstanding salary - totallying up to several Millions of PHP for combined for all 36 or so employees.

Who else could or should defend and protect the employees if the DoLE fails to accomplish its task and responsibilities / liabilities / duties ? Even if such investigation never may be mentioned in the law book - the simple fact to learn about dozens of others being exploited should be enough to trigger the heart and senses of a loyal government employee to pay that employer a visit and investigate - formally or informally - the precise situation of all employees at that facility.

One of the excuses presented to me by the swiss chalet representative was that it is common here in Angeles ( and other parts of the Philippine islands ) to pay below legal minimum wages.

However

If one is a criminal or many are behaving like criminals - that never justifies all to act like criminals! If one steals legally arranged salary from employees each and every months - that never justifies all to steal part of salary from employees nor does it legalize the fact of wages below legal minimum wages.

Yes it is true that in Angeles City - Balibago district - one of the most successful tourist sector of the entire Philippine islands, it is common for many - may be most - facilities to pay far less than legal minimum wages. I have asked dozens of employees at various tourist places and found mostly salaries as low as 80 to 180 PHP per day paid. Hence salaries far far below legal minimum wages as defined by the law.

That situation leads to the assumption - without any proof however - that someone may be closing both eyes instead of controling wages, someone whose job it is to protect employees from exploitation by employers is failing to do his job. Even if such job may never be specified in the written job specifications - the moral and spiritual duties of the Department of Labor and Employment still might be to open all senses and look into the entire industry here in Angeles to prevent abuse and exploitation of weak and needy ones.

The job description given by God to all of use requires all of us to always protect all from abuse, to always protect all from exploitation, to always protect the freedom and dignity of all mankind at any price when ever we become aware of any situation of abuse or exploitation or when ever we are directly asked for help in such situations. Written or unwritten in law books - such is the law implanted in all true hearts. Anything less than a full job in favor of all mankind is a betrayal of God and has absolutely nothing to do with being Christian.

To know and feel what is right requires no study nor graduation in law or other sciences - such knowledge of what is right or wrong simply is the result and output of any and every truly loving heart combined with God given common sense. A gift we all originally received from God!!!

When all people - specially all men - spend less time in gyms and more time working and helping needly ones, then all people grow stronger and faster together into one divine family again. It is real life and helping work in our real world that really creates the strength to grow into spiritual eternal freedom. Gyms and sport clubs only act as a temporary rehabilitation training facility for real life.

BTW:

If you want to know how much the minimal salary of other countries is ... here a brief quote from the DOL web site about Minimum Wage in the USA as published on the official web site of the US government DOL

On May 25, 2007, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) was amended to increase the federal minimum wage in three steps: to .85 per hour effective July 24, 2007; to .55 per hour effective July 24, 2008; and to .25 per hour effective July 24, 2009.

Are Asians really that much less worth than US citizens ??? Or may be part of the jobless population in USA is the result of lacking humbleness to do any job at any price - just to support the family and to do what needs to be done. May be that is also one of the reasons why so many European and US jobs are outsourced to Asian countries .... ???

In God we all are of equal value - the reason why we are here on earth, far away from God is the fact that Millions of us indulge in a higher life standard at the expense of others working for much less than necessary for a descent and happy life in a happy family on earth.

Love and bliss

hans