In September 2023, we celebrate the 150th anniversary of the first 8 hour day won in South Australia.

Back then, working people had to struggle workplace by workplace to win better conditions.

The unregulated world of work made a lot of business owners very rich, while thousands of workers struggled. Workers were employed on seasonal or daily basis, lining up every morning down at the wharves and at farm and factory gates in the hope there’d be some work available for them– the low tech, 1800s versions of today’s Uber, Mable and Air Tasker.

In the mid-1800s, workers lived in poverty: there was no minimum wage, no minimum employment conditions. Those in steady jobs often worked 14 hour days across six to seven days a week, while away from work there was no Medicare or modern medicine, no social security, little education for working people, and living conditions were cramped with no modern sanitation.

This harsh reality saw mass movements of working people around the country come together to strive for something better. In those years workers learnt that to win better pay and conditions, better safety at work and security for their families, they needed to be organised.

In the mid-1800s South Australians organised themselves into the 8-Hour Movement, coming together with a vision – a day of 8 hours work, 8 hours rest and 8 hours to do what we may. It was a movement of people who wanted lives where they and their families thrived, not just survived. They marched in the streets, they met in workplaces, at markets, at church halls, and the movement grew.

In 1873, metal trades workers were the first in the state to win the right to an 8 hour workday. Many more trades and occupations would follow. South Australians had just learnt the power of working people coming together. Workers continued to harness that power, establishing the United Trades and Labor Council (SA Unions) in 1884 and the South Australian Labor Party in 1891 to keep building a state where people thrived, not just survived.

The 8 Hour Movement in South Australia became the beating heart of our state’s sense of social justice and egalitarianism. And that heartbeat has kept beating strong, driving our state forward to lead the nation on social progress.

In 1876 we were the first part of the British Empire to recognise and legalise trade unions. In 1894 South Australia was the first place in the world to give equal political rights to both men and women, including Aboriginal women.

SA led the nation in women’s suffrage, with Mary Lee leading the creation of the South Australian Women’s Suffrage League in 1888. We drove the campaign towards federation, aboriginal land rights and outlawing discrimination on the basis of race and sexuality.

The legacy of the 8 Hour Movement in SA is all around us, in our sense of fairness, the aspiration South Aussies have to enjoy a fulfilling life at work and outside of it, and our important strides forward in working and living standards.

But 150 years after that historic first win, there is unfinished business. South Australian workers are faced with some hard truths in 2023.

Corporate profits are extraordinarily high, gouged from workers pockets through profiteering, while too many South Australians cannot afford to live on eight hours work alone. Historically high numbers of us have to hold down two or more jobs to make ends meet, while the creep of digital technology keeps us tethered to work long after we’ve clocked off.

A secure job is the key to being able to live a fulfilling life now, and plan for the future. Unfortunately, the growth in insecure, casual and gig work is putting that life out of reach of hundreds of thousands of South Aussies. The 2023 Annual Wage Review by the Fair Work Commission heard that low wage growth, high inflation, and unrestrained corporate price gouging mean that people are skipping meals, avoiding medical care and dreading their next bill.

The 8 Hour Movement in South Australia became the beating heart of our state’s sense of social justice and egalitarianism

Nationally, in 2022, the average worker saw their wages go backwards by 4.5% – the highest real wage cut on record. The story is worse in Adelaide. In 2022, South Australians saw their wages go backwards by 5.1%. Couple this with the fact that one in three of us are in insecure employment and that ABS figures show that almost a million Australians need to hold down multiple jobs to make ends meet (the highest rate since those records began in 1994), no wonder the cost of living is critical for so many people.

The cost of living crisis is also locking people out of owning (and increasingly being able to rent) their own home. While South Australian households are struggling with increasing cost of living, supermarkets, banks and petrol companies have posted huge profits, which have arisen from corporate price gouging and profiteering.

Government policy must prioritise decent wage rises and conditions, as well as workers compensation for all workers, including casual and gig workers, to start to balance the ledger and deliver eight hours of work that we can rely and thrive on for all of us.

We deserve eight hours work that we come home safely from. Last year, sixteen South Australians were killed at work. In 2021/22, there were nearly 13,000 workers compensation claims lodged by injured workers and that same year courts dished out $2,561,000 in fines for the 11 worst safety breaches – more than in any year to date.

Those figures represent far too many workplaces that fail to uphold health and safety standards, and fail to deal with safety risks before workers are injured or killed. While many unaddressed safety issues pose a risk of physical injury, we are increasingly seeing the damaging psychological impacts of workload intensification, excessive hours and fatigue, bullying and harassment, and social isolation.

Every South Australian worker should be able to go to work at the beginning of the day and return home safely, and South Australian workers need greater ability and support to proactively address safety problems at work when their boss fails to do so.

We deserve eight hours of work that we can clock-off from. For too many South Australian workers, their work-life balance is off.

Working additional hours, receiving contact after hours, excessive workloads and understaffing are systemic issues for many workers. With constant email and phone notifications, an expectation to always be switched on, and blurring boundaries between work and home life, finding the work-life balance is harder than ever.

Make no mistake; this is always to the benefit of the boss, with workers completing an average of 4.6 hours of unpaid overtime each week. Workers should be empowered to refuse contact outside of working hours, with legislated protection from retaliation. This should include requiring employers to record all instances where employees are contacted outside of regular working hours to allow such contact to be audited and unpaid wages recouped.

We have been taught over recent years, that these issues are merely the price to pay for a working life in the 21st century. But our great great grandparents knew something we need to remember – it doesn’t have to be this way. We can imagine and create a world where businesses and workers thrive together.

That’s why in 2023 SA Unions are renewing our commitment to the principles held dear to the South Australians of the 8 Hour Movement who came before us. 150 years after they won the first 8 hour day, we continue on the path forged by those visionaries.

Activist Helen Todd, another early champion of women’s suffrage, advocated for both economic prosperity and an enhanced quality of life, symbolised by the concept of “bread and roses.” Contrary to the tropes about lazy bludgers, South Aussie workers work hard, and in return we deserve lives of fulfilment and beauty.

Lives where we can thrive, not just survive. Not just bread, but roses too.

Dale Beasley is SA Unions secretary