Paternalism

(from patres, belonging to the father or derived from him). Doctrine that regards employer and employees as partners in the company, and recommends a whole series of administrative, social, economic, technical, cultural and psychological measures to guarantee the “social peace” presenting the employer as the only guarantor of that peace. Chief among these measures is profit-sharing for company employees through the distribution of minority shares to them based on the fulfillment of certain conditions. Another important measure is a system of free training and retraining of personnel to raise worker productivity and product quality, thus increasing the company’s competitiveness in the marketplace. From the point of view of solidarity (*) and the view that all social actors are human beings with equal rights and corresponding duties, N.H. criticizes the unilateral approach of this doctrine and its class “egoism”. (*Worker ownership). In addition to sharing in the profits, employees have the right to effective participation in the management of their company and to control its activities within the limits of their competence. Just as employers do, employees also have the right to organize themselves freely and to defend their interests. For this reason, N.H. rejects the doctrine and practice of p. as being a form of social discrimination, although it does accept some concrete procedures that can facilitate the fulfillment of the social pact between employers, employees and the State, and always with the observance of international norms.