A Fair Day's Work: The Quest to Win Back Time
Kevin Jones has alerted us to an upcoming event on September 16: From the Eight-Hour Day to the Four-Day Week: Book Launch and Discussion
Join union leaders and historian Sean Scalmer in discussion of his new book, A Fair Day's Work: The Quest to Win Back Time (Melbourne University Press).
Time and Place: 6pm, Tuesday 16 September, Solidarity Hall, Victorian Trades Hall, 54 Victoria St, Carlton.
To be launched by Michele O'Neil, President ACTU. In conversation with: Imogen Sturni, Branch Secretary, Victorian Branch Secretary, ASU Private Sector Branch & Madeleine Harradence, State Secretary, ANMF Victorian Branch
This is a free event -book your spot through this Eventbrite link
The MUP website describes the book as a revealing look at the contemporary crisis of work-life imbalance.
The length of the working day and the challenges of work-life balance are pressing issues for many Australians, as well as lively matters of public controversy. While the winning of the eight-hour day is celebrated as a past industrial achievement, contemporary discussions of working hours often overlook its rich history.
Tracing 150 years of campaigns for rights and for the fair distribution of productivity gains, historian Sean Scalmer shows how these movements successfully reduced the length of the standard working week from 60 to 38 hours per week, and how economic, social and political shifts since the early 1980s have stalled this long-term progress. Today, industrial laws provide inadequate protection for excessive hours, and Australian women increasingly shoulder long hours of paid work with the bulk of unpaid domestic labour.
As debate over our working lives intensifies amid ongoing political, economic and technological challenges, Scalmer's labour of love on the history of work and play affords us a way to understand the past so we can win back our time collectively.
Sean Scalmer is a professor of history at the University of Melbourne and a fellow of the Academy of Social Science in Australia. He researches the history of social movements and democracy, considering both the national history of Australia and trans-national and comparative histories.
