Through the Eight Hour Day, the 44 Hour Week and 40 Hour Week campaigns Australia lead the world in civilising hours of work. From 1856 until 1947 Australia consistently had among the best hours of work regimes in the world.

In the late 1970’s a successful campaign which culminated in a national standard being achieved in the 1983 National Wage Case reduced ordinary hours to 38 per week.

However, since 1983 average hours of work have steadily grown to the point where we now have the second longest average working hours for full time employees in the OECD. Of any OECD country, Australia has the largest proportion of its workforce working very long hours (more than 50 hours per week). Much of these long hours of work are unpaid.

Many working people feel they simply have no control. As one participant in ACTU research on this issue put it – ‘work ate my life’.

In providing employees with a right to refuse unreasonable overtime, the recent Working Hours Case has achieved a significant improvement in the award safety net.

However, the findings in the decision have also highlighted the appalling state of working time in Australia. More needs to be done.

Just as other communities, nations and governments have faced up to and taken action to address the growth in working hours, its is time that Australia tackled this issue.

More Information

ACTU Reasonable Hours Campaign Page – news, union resources and research on the effects of working hours and what unions are doing about it.