Labour Day – known in Tasmania as Eight-Hour Day – commemorates the establishment of the eight-hour working day, and the contribution of workers to the nation’s development.
Melbourne is generally regarded as the global birthplace of the Eight-Hour movement, following action by stonemasons that resulted in an eight-hour day in 1856.
The achievement is commemorated by a monument featuring a golden globe bearing the “888” symbol at the top of Russell Street, across the road from the Trades Hall in Melbourne.
The eight-hour day was not something that was granted by the benevolence of employers, or business or conservative politicians. It had to be fought for.
Every gain has had to be fought for
Workplace rights have advanced greatly since then, and every gain has been opposed by business.
And if you listen to the business lobby today, all those gains have made Australia not a better place, but a worse one.
So last week, the Federal Government, responding to an increasing chorus of complaints from business and from its own backbench, confirmed a Productivity Commission inquiry into Australia’s workplace relations framework.
ACTU President Ged Kearney described this inquiry as putting wages, rights at work and conditions on trial.
This has all got us here at Working Life thinking: what if the business lobby is right? What if all these achievements we celebrate on Labour Day are bad for business?
Could we have been wrong all along? Do we owe the business community an apology?
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