Justice has always been considered a concept that is very separate from business management and has only been considered legitimate as a social objective. Economic theory has never produced anything that is specific to organizations. In particular, one of the fathers of economics, Adam Smith, wanted to show what was good for the world, which can be paralleled with the concept of eudaimonia (happiness) proposed by Aristotle. In a simplistic view of economics, the ‘invisible hand’ implies that companies must maximize profits and that doing so would already contribute to this social eudaimonia. That is their role. Rethinking this objective proposed by Smith, we can see that eudaimonia can only be achieved if, when companies are analysed, their decision-making incorporates values and virtues. This requires them to decide the goals they have to set and consider the benefits as results that will only be realised by making the right decisions or, in other words, with the inclusion of these values. In this essay, our aim is to show that generating justice must be one of the basic objectives when running a company because, if this objective is not incorporated within the decision-making process, the decisions made incorporating injustices can result in the same organizational structure. For companies, therefore, decision-making must generate justice and, as such, it cannot be directed in any way. This justice must be applied with Aristotelian logic or, in other words, on a case to case basis that judges each situation on its individual merits. This is how you can generate profits, which you will never be able to ascertain whether or not they have been maximized, but which are satisfactory, thereby achieving the ultimate goal of eudaimonia. This would align what Aristotle said with what Adam Smith proposed.

The objective of this article is to analyze the effects that the economic crisis Catalonia suffers since year 2008 has had on employment and working conditions, with special emphasis on issues related to safety and health at work. The impact of the crisis, besides the effect it has had on people who have lost their jobs, is already perceivable in a worsening of working conditions in areas such as working hours or exposure to ergonomic and psychosocial risks.

Although this deterioration has not yet translated into a significant increase in the register of accidents and work-related illnesses, this cannot lead us to the mistake of thinking that the crisis has not caused damage in the field of prevention. On the one hand, it is necessary to take caution about data from public registers of occupational accidents, which currently do not allow us to detect work-related illnesses and, on the other hand, it is necessary to take into account that the deterioration in the working conditions does not immediately translate into occupational accidents or diseases. For this reason, it is necessary, now that it seems the economic situation starts to improve, to regain lost ground in terms of risk prevention.

Some reflections are derived from recent studies conducted by the National Institute for Safety and Health at Work (INSHT) in a sample of over 60 excellent companies and directed by the writer of this article, on the link of Occupational hazards prevention to the Social Responsibility policy, and how this contributes to consolidate their successes.