Happy workers day!

Workers Day, also known as Labour Day and May Day, is one of the few commemorative holidays celebrated all over the world, and dates back to a protest that took place in Chicago in 1886.

It all started with unhappy workers who went on strike to fight for the eight-hour work day and 5-day work week. A couple of decades later, 1 May would become a day of protest to better the working conditions for everyone with fair labour practices and employment standards. Today, this is the reality for many of us workers, and definitely something worth celebrating!

Fun facts about the 5-day work week:

• The first time the term “weekend” was used, was in 1879 in an English magazine called Notes and Queries.
• Weekends were first officially instituted in 1908 at a New England cotton mill in the United States, to allow employees to be “sober and refreshed” on Mondays.
• Henry Ford began shutting down his factories on Saturdays and Sundays in 1926.
• It was only in the 1940s/50s that the 40-hour work week began to be adopted internationally.
• The International Labour Organisation (ILO) deems a 48-hour work week as excessive 😮
• A study done in 2007 shows that 22% of workers still work excessive hours!
• The country that works the longest hours according to the above study, is Indonesia 🇮🇩

Ref: Cape Town Magazine, Wikipedia, CNN Money, Huffington Post

There are two things we can learn from Workers Day.

1. People want to work, but they want to be treated fairly, have standards to work by and have enough time for rest and recreation.
2. Unhappy workers will go to great measures to disrupt the system for better working conditions.

🎉 So enjoy your day off this May Day!