The 8 hour day & Samuel Parnell
Samuel Duncan Parnell is credited with founding the eight-hour working day in New Zealand.
The Welsh socialist Robert Owen first advocated the 8-hour day in the early 19th century. Parnell refused to join a London carpenters union in 1834 when the union said that an 8-hour day was an impossible demand.
Parnell landed in Wellington on 8 February 1840 and was determined that the long hours demanded by employers in London would not apply in New Zealand. He was offered work but said he would only take the job on the condition that the working day would be eight hours. With a shortage of tradesmen, the employer had no choice but to agree.
Six more ships with settlers arrived during 1840-41. The workers on each of these ships were approached by Parnell and others. All accepted their 8 hour day. In October 1840, a meeting of workers in Wellington resolved that any worker who refused to accept an eight-hour day would be “ducked in the harbour.”
In 1841, a road was under construction to the Hutt. The workers, ordered to work longer hours, threw down their tools. The employer conceded and one of the first strikes in New Zealand successfully limited a day’s work to eight hours.
The 8-hour day spread to Dunedin and then Auckland although it did not apply to all workers. Many employers, such as the textile industry with many women workers, demanded more hours than 8 per day. Working hours were described as “sweating.”
Parnell was so admired by workers in Wellington that he was guest of honour at the first labour-day demonstration in Wellington on 28 October 1890. After his death, a committee was established to create a public memorial to Parnell, which is the plaque on display.
At various times employers succeeded in getting longer hours, for example during the Great Depression in the 1930s. Unions like the Printers led by Ken Baxter fought to reestablish the 8-hour day in the 1930s. A solidarity strike of the Female Printers Assistants Union supported the male Printers Union industrial action.
In the early 1990s, the 8-hour day then enshrined in law was repealed with the passing of the Employment Contracts Act. This was part of the legal changes aimed at undermining the ability of unions to protect wages and conditions at work resulting in greater poverty for many working people. Since then there been no legal limit to the hours that can be imposed in employment agreements by the employer other than what a union negotiates in a collective agreement.