A Fair Day's Work

The Quest to Win Back Time

Sean Scalmer

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English

MELBOURNE UNIVERSITY PRES
01 August 2025

History

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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. This has produced a social crisis for all Australians, but is yet to inspire adequate political action.

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.

By: Sean Scalmer
Imprint: MELBOURNE UNIVERSITY PRES
Country of Publication: Australia
Dimensions: Height: 5,944mm, Width: 3,886mm,
Weight: 187g
ISBN: 9780522880816
ISBN 10: 0522880819
Pages: 192
Publication Date: 01 August 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

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 transnational and comparative histories. He has written seven books, including the prize-winning On the Stump (2017), Gandhi in the West (2011), Dissent Events (2002) and The Little History of Australian Unionism (2006).