Today is Labour Day, and it is a holiday to celebrate the achievements of workers. Labour Day starts off with the eight-hour movement. To know more about Labour Day and its history, read more below.
Labour Day is a public holiday celebrated on the fourth Monday of October. It began back to the eight-hour movement that occurred in the newly founded Wellington colony in 1840, mainly because of carpenter Samuel Parnell's unwillingness to work more than eight hours a day. Labour Day was first celebrated on 28 October 1980, when thousands of trade union members and supporters attended parades in the main centres. Government employees were given a day off to attend the parades and many businesses closed for at least part of the day.
Samuel Parnell
Credit: https://nzhistory.govt.nz/politics/labour-day
On 28 October 1950, New Zealand celebrated the 50th anniversary of the eight-hour day with a parade. This event was then celebrated in late October as either Labour Day or Eight-Hour Demonstration Day. In 1899, the government ordered that the day would be a public holiday from 1900. The day was celebrated on different days in different regions of the country. This led to ship owners complaining that seamen were taking excessive holidays by having one Labour Day on one port then another in their next port. In 1910, the government specified that the holiday would be observed on the same day throughout the country.
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