eight-hour day


eight-hour day:

see labor lawlabor law,
legislation dealing with human beings in their capacity as workers or wage earners. The Industrial Revolution, by introducing the machine and factory production, greatly expanded the class of workers dependent on wages as their source of income.
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Eight-Hour Day

VariousEach of Australia's states celebrates the improvements that have been made in working conditions with its own Labor Day. The Eight-Hour Day holiday is marked with parades and celebrations to commemorate trade union efforts to limit working hours. In many places, people still chant the unions' slogan: "Eight hours' labor, eight hours' recreation, and eight hours' rest!," which, by happenstance, is the basis of St. Benedict's Rule of Life for religious orders.
In Queensland Labour Day is celebrated on the first Monday in May; in New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, and South Australia it's the first Monday in October; in Western Australia it's the first Monday in March; and in Tasmania and Victoria it's the second Monday in March. In New Zealand, Labour Day is observed on the first Monday in October.
CONTACTS:
Ministry for Culture and Heritage
P.O. Box 5364
Wellington, New Zealand
64-4-471-4027; fax: 61-4-499-4490
www.nzhistory.net.nz
SOURCES:
AnnivHol-2000, pp. 54, 91, 180
BkHolWrld-1986, Mar 5
DictDays-1988, pp. 36, 65