What is the Meaning & Definition of work
At the beginning of the story, and for thousands of years, work was primarily done by slave labor, owned by an owner who had the right to enjoy or use with the produced goods. Thus, the slave was being treated as one commodity, with the possibility of being sold or purchased. This is verifiable from the Greek civilization, the Roman Empire and the slave trade made during the conquest of America. This particular State of the work completed in the 19th century (at least in permitted way).
Previously, during the middle ages, the feudal regime, where slavery was excluded had been developed. In this case, to work him called servitude, being the slaves free men, since even though they had limits on its work, its people were not owned by another. Basically, in this period and during this form of social organization, the worker (servant) made a contract with a feudal Lord in which it undertook to work in Exchange for protection. It is the precedent that is more similar to the mode of what we today call work.
An important aspect with respect to the work, is the definition of "manual" and "intellectual" body. What does it mean? Manual work is one that has been developed since the beginning of the human as a person authorised to carry out "work force", and here they range from slaves to men who worked with the first steam engines, at the time of the English Industrial Revolution. However, this type of work is not something of the past, since currently it continues. Consider for example, metallurgical workers or mechanics.
But during the postwar period, began to develop a new way of working: the "intellectual", with the emergence of workers "of white collar", as he was called to those practising these types of jobs. And this was thanks to the concept of "surplus value" also incorporated in this period, which is the same as we know as "added value": the development of science and technology that improves and optimizes the manufactured goods. In addition to goods, also at this time begins to effect the idea of "services", which are all "intangible" assets (they can not touch) that can acquire: tourist packages, life insurance, or the recruitment of a specialist so fix the PC.
Currently, the work is done in Exchange for a wage. So the worker sells their labour force in the market and receives remuneration for this. The employer, on the other hand, contracted staff in order to receive a profit. The interests of workers are protected by the trade unions, that collectively negotiate wages according to each sector in particular. In addition to this protection, workers are covered by the set of labor laws. In this sense, changes during The Walfare State are remarkable, or what became known as the welfare state. During the ' 30s and ' 70 State was extremely administrator, balancing the differences in interests between the capitalists (the market) and workers (employees). In this period, the workers won great conquests to improve their working conditions, such as vacation pay, fixed-hour day, free to enjoy the family and leisure days.
Neo-liberal policies laid down between the years ' 80 and ' 90 minimize some of these conquests of labour benefits, as for example was the labor flexibility: through this policy, the State benefits capitalists, and can these decouple a worker of his company, paying less than the compensation before they were given at the time for a cut to the employment contract.
The lack of work or unemployment is one of the social and economic ills that States must combat. From the economic point of view, it means a form of despise resources valuable, and from the social point of view, it leads to situations of poverty and destitution.
Work is enshrined by the United Nations as a human right, whereby any person (i.e., every inhabitant of this planet) has freedom to the choice of employment, to enjoy good working conditions, and of course, all kinds of slavery or serfdom is abolished.
Article contributed by the team of collaborators.