We explain what a worker is and what this term means for Marxism. In addition, what are the rights of the worker.
What is a worker?
The term worker refers to any natural person who lends his services subordinate to another institution, or person or business, obtaining a remuneration in exchange for his work force.
The historical stage of modernity began with the Industrial Revolution, which shaped the social form capitalist comprising the subject "employee”, A concept that continues to this day as we know it.
It already existed in the social form feudal Before the modern stage, a sense of the worker, but he did not give up his workforce for a salary, but was considered a “servant” (of the gleba) who, in exchange for protection and precarious housing, gave and worked for his master His product belonged to no one but the master who could do whatever he wanted with it.
After the industrial revolution, the modern conception of the worker was inaugurated, whose rights are linked to the political conquests of rights subject to international and national norms, and whose contract stipulates a salary remuneration for the fact of having handed over their labor power to the investing capitalist. .
Services that are not provided voluntarily are considered slavery, such as the historical cases of nineteenth century countries such as Cuba, a sugar producer or Brazil, a coffee producer. This form of work has already been formally abolished by international standards that prohibit it, although they present their limitations and cases of exception to the rule.
The worker can provide services within the scope of a organization under the direction of a natural person or legal, called businessman, in the case that it is for profit, or institutional or social if it is non-profit. Or in the case that the worker can perform his functions on his own, autonomous, in this way a contractual relationship is not maintained but one of commercial exchange.
Worker for Marxism
At this point it is Marxist theory a key to understanding the capitalist movement that drives society today, as well as to understand from the point of view of historical materialism what role work and worker play in society. society.
The concept of the worker from this perspective is linked to two concepts, one is that of exploitation and the other that of alienation. The first refers to the weather that he employee, that is, the labor force, employs and rewards in producing and generating greater profit, production such that it covers the costs of its own salary and even manages to generate a plus, the capital gain, or gain.
This gain is directly linked to the second concept of alienation, this is equivalent to alienation of the product of the labor forces. In other simpler words, it is about how the capitalist exploits and then appropriates the product of the work done by the worker, a product that in turn contains the objectified time of that working subject.
Worker rights
Today there are laws and international treaties, as well as agreements with union organizations, from human rights, civil associations, etc. that they are safe from any excessive exploitation that is applied to workers.
Regulations that aim to guarantee worker rights for their health and performance, such as paid vacations, health insurance, life and / or accident, medical coverage, limitation of working hours of 8 hours a day, tools and protective supplies and security.
Exists in the analysis Today's sociological process, the detection of a process that complements this, called "justiciability", by which it is increasingly common to find that workers and citizens assert their Rights presenting charges through the judiciary, which implies an awareness of the acquired rights that are considered basic and inherent to the current human condition.