Justice @ Work - Paying Bills

It’s easy for us to talk about justice when it’s somebody else, somewhere else, or when it’s something we would never consider doing ourselves. But the workplace has all sorts of smaller scale but no less important justice challenges. Over the next few weeks I’m planning to explore a few of them.

For today let’s talk about paying bills. Most companies have been sufficiently cash-strapped at one time or another that they can’t pay all their bills. But is failing to pay a bill according to an implicit or explicit sales contract a just thing to do? How does that fit in with Biblical perspectives on repaying what is due, or on using fair measures and weights in trading?

The problem is that, in cash shortages, we often have a Hobson’s choice between failing to pay a supplier on the one hand, and failing to meet some other critical obligation (such as payroll) on the other. Ultimately if we pay all our bills on time, but as a result the company collapses, then lots more people lose. We really do have to make difficult and less than optimal choices sometimes (just as in other parts of life).

As I think this through for myself, so far I have only been able to do the following:

1. Ensure when I enter into a purchase agreement (or any other kind of contract) that I have a reasonable expectation that I will be able to meet the terms of the agreement, and that I honestly intend to do so.
2. Question carefully the implications on my supplier if I fail to make a payment. Even though I owe to a corporate supplier just as much as to an individual contractor, the impact of delay on people’s lives is potentially much greater in the latter case. (This is not, however, an excuse not to pay corporate suppliers).
3. Engage in discussion with someone (generally my boss, the company owner, who struggles with the same issues) in a kind of mutual accountability that challenges rationalization and injustice in such situations.
4. Then make the decision that will best serve the “common good” and determine what could be done differently in the future to avoid a repeat of this dilemma.

I’m not saying this is how I always act – just what I think God demands in Micah 6:8 “He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”