On the 28th of November 1919 in Washington the first international labour
standard of the ILO was adopted. The hours of work industry convention 001
limited working time to eight hours a day and forty-eight hours a week.
An average work week for a full-time manufacturing employee in the United
States in 1890 was 100 hours. The origins of the movement for an eight-hour day
began with the Industrial Revolution in Britain. In 1817 British textile
manufacturer Robert Owen raised the demand and coined the phrase eight hours
labour, eight hours recreation, eight hours rest. The first piece of British
legislation governing work hours was the factory Act of 1833 limiting the work
day for children in factories. In the United States the Labor Reform
Association founded in 1864 and the Grande Eight-hour League of
Massachusetts formed a year later became the centres of the American movement.
Meanwhile in Australia trade unionist James Stephens led stonemasons in
Melbourne to agitate for an eight-hour working day, which they eventually won.
With the growing integration of the world economy and the development of the
global trade union movement the call for an eight-hour working day became global.
By the start of the 20th century the eight-hour work day was becoming a
reality for more and more people and at the end of the First World War
eight-hour laws of varying scope had been enacted across Europe.
In the meantime the social situation was explosive and labour unrest widespread.
"Unrest so great that the peace and harmony of the world are imperiled."
To face this challenge the International Labour Organization was created in 1919
as part of the Treaty of Versailles. The peace treaty included the
declaration that "the adoption of an eight hours day or a forty-eight hours
week as the standard to be aimed at" was of "special and urgent importance".
This urgent call was soon met at the first session of the International
Labour Conference in Washington in 1919 with the adoption of convention 001.
A landmark for workers' rights the convention has had far-reaching impact
on normalizing the eight-hour workday and has been an enduring pillar of
modern working life.