Speaker 1: Already and this is this is the daily This is
Speaker 1: the daily.
Speaker 2: Ohs oh, now it makes sense. Good morning and welcome
Speaker 2: to the Daily OS. It's Tuesday, the tenth of September.
Speaker 2: I'm Harry, I'm Zara. Weekends are sacred in Australia. Whether
Speaker 2: it's kicking back to have a few beers with mates,
Speaker 2: exploring the great outdoors, or putting your feet up. It's
Speaker 2: a rite that work has fought for and was granted
Speaker 2: by the courts seventy seven years on. We're starting to
Speaker 2: look at four day work weeks. In today's rewind and
Speaker 2: deep Dive. We'll look at how the Ausie weekend came
Speaker 2: to life and how the nature of work is changing.
Speaker 2: But first, Sarah, what's making headlines?
Speaker 3: The Royal Commission into Defense and Veteran Suicide has handed
Speaker 3: down its final report, recommending a major overhaul of recruitment
Speaker 3: processes and better regulation of veterans and defense departments. The
Speaker 3: Royal Commission lasted three years, heard from hundreds of witnesses
Speaker 3: and received more than five and a half thousand submissions
Speaker 3: on the prevalence of poor mental health in Australia's military.
Speaker 3: It found one thousand, six hundred and seventy seven serving
Speaker 3: and ex Defense Force personnel had died by suicide in
Speaker 3: the years nineteen ninety seven to twenty twenty one. That's
Speaker 3: more than twenty times those killed on active duty. The
Speaker 3: Royal Commission made one hundred and twenty two recommendations, including
Speaker 3: reforming the culture of the military and strengthening accountability for
Speaker 3: the health and well being of eighty f members. The
Speaker 3: Government will now consider whether it will adopt any of
Speaker 3: these recommendations. If this story has raised any concerns for you,
Speaker 3: you can reach out to Lifeline any time on thirteen
Speaker 3: eleven fourteen or open arms on one eight hundred zero
Speaker 3: one one zero four six.
Speaker 2: A group of Western Australian farmers are set to protest
Speaker 2: outside Parliament House in Cambridge today against the government's ban
Speaker 2: on live sheep exports. In July, legislation passed the Federal
Speaker 2: Parliament to introduce a live sheep export ban by May eight.
Speaker 2: Western Australia is the only state still conducting live sheep exports,
Speaker 2: which have been criticized by animal welfare groups. Now advocacy
Speaker 2: group Keep the Sheep is protesting the ban, which they
Speaker 2: say will quote damage regional communities and impacted multiple industries.
Speaker 2: Today's protest in Canberra follows rallies in Perth and Regional wa.
Speaker 3: Multiple polls released this week show Kamala Harris and Donald
Speaker 3: Trump neck and neck in the US presidential race just
Speaker 3: two months out from the November election. A national poll
Speaker 3: from The New York Times in Siena College showed Trump
Speaker 3: ahead of Harris by just one percent, while CBS News
Speaker 3: and Yugov polling in Key States showed Harris ahead of Trump,
Speaker 3: also just by one percent. The candidates will officially face
Speaker 3: off for the first time on live televis tomorrow morning
Speaker 3: Australian time. That'll be the first debate since late June,
Speaker 3: when Trump debated current President Joe Biden.
Speaker 2: And Today's good news. It turns out galaxies are a
Speaker 2: lot bigger than scientists initially estimated, according to new research
Speaker 2: from Durham University. An image taken by the researchers showed
Speaker 2: the gas around galaxies reaches much further into space than
Speaker 2: previously thought. According to the research, the discovery could help
Speaker 2: us to understand how galaxies build mass over time, and
Speaker 2: could impact how different galaxies interact.
Speaker 3: Harry, I saw your piece on this over the weekend
Speaker 3: and thought that it was an excellent piece of trivia
Speaker 3: that people could go and take to their Tuesday trivia
Speaker 3: nights to say, hey, do you know how long the
Speaker 3: weekend's been around formally in Australia.
Speaker 2: Would you have gotten it right before?
Speaker 3: Certainly not, would have theyiled that one. But I think
Speaker 3: that this is so interesting because you know, us here
Speaker 3: twenty twenty four believe that the weekend is this kind
Speaker 3: of enshrined right that we have to turn off, and
Speaker 3: you know, especially with right to disconnect laws, especially to
Speaker 3: turn off. But it hasn't always been that way.
Speaker 2: When I first thought about the weekend coming into existence
Speaker 2: for the first time seventy seven years ago, I sort
Speaker 2: of thought, Okay, that's a long time ago. It's been,
Speaker 2: you know, seventy seven years. But then you look back
Speaker 2: and think, nineteen forty seven wasn't actually that long ago.
Speaker 2: I mean, my grandparents, I was going to say, any
Speaker 2: about older listeners will take great offense to us. So
Speaker 2: long ago exactly, and the whole concept of a work
Speaker 2: is right to some knockoff time just didn't really exist
Speaker 2: and there wasn't even really a word for it until
Speaker 2: maybe the nineteen thirties nineteen forties when this idea of
Speaker 2: a weekend actually started to spread and pick up around
Speaker 2: the world.
Speaker 3: And what was the typical day for an Australian worker
Speaker 3: prior to to this weekend actually becoming a thing.
Speaker 2: I'm sure a lot of people who are listening are
Speaker 2: visual learners like me. So I wanted to put myself
Speaker 2: into the boots of a steel factory worker. He and
Speaker 2: I can say he, because it was a largely masculine
Speaker 2: industry at the time, would get up at the crack
Speaker 2: of dawn maybe year around five am and head out
Speaker 2: to the factory floor slog away burning iron ore to
Speaker 2: make steel and would clock off sometime in the evening.
Speaker 2: Some factories days were even longer and squeezed even more
Speaker 2: out of their workers, and people would normally work six
Speaker 2: days a week and the only sanctified day off was
Speaker 2: a Sunday because in Australia at the time we had
Speaker 2: a predominantly Anglo Christian population who was running the show
Speaker 2: and Sunday is the sacred day of rest.
Speaker 3: And so then, how did this idea of the weekend
Speaker 3: come to be?
Speaker 2: It was many, many years in the making, and looking
Speaker 2: back on it, Australia was actually comparatively late compared to
Speaker 2: some other Western countries, so in the US, UK, New Zealand,
Speaker 2: they had all developed the idea of the forty hour
Speaker 2: work week before they entered the Second World War. Once
Speaker 2: the war ended in nineteen forty five, Australian workers decided
Speaker 2: to barrack for this right to reduce their hours. But
Speaker 2: this had been a fight that had been going on
Speaker 2: for decades, and many union groups and organizers brought legal
Speaker 2: action against some industries, including car manufacturers, metal workers, tailors, stonemasons,
Speaker 2: boiler makers. That's not a word I've heard in the
Speaker 2: recent past, but at the time was a very big industry.
Speaker 2: The unions had pushed for a reduction in working hours,
Speaker 2: and on the eighth of September in nineteen forty seven,
Speaker 2: the Commonwealth Court of Arbitration made a pretty important ruling
Speaker 2: that gave life to the idea of the forty hour
Speaker 2: working week, and in handing down its unanim decision, the
Speaker 2: court actually said, and I quote, the future will be
Speaker 2: watched with concern and interest. So I can't go back
Speaker 2: and ask the judges what they were thinking when they
Speaker 2: made this decision, But that kind of language just gives
Speaker 2: you a sense of how they knew. There was a
Speaker 2: lot writing on this.
Speaker 3: Decision, and I mean that, as you said, betrays a
Speaker 3: lot of the thinking at the time, which was that
Speaker 3: it was this really novel concept and it was new
Speaker 3: and untested, at least in the Australian market, whether people
Speaker 3: who are posed it or groups that are posed it
Speaker 3: at the time, i'd presume.
Speaker 2: So, yeah, definitely. And in fact, some employer groups had
Speaker 2: made pretty detailed arguments against introducing a forty hour work week.
Speaker 2: So they said that it would devastate some businesses, It
Speaker 2: would lead to lower productivity, there would be good shortages,
Speaker 2: price increases, and they leaned on this idea that some
Speaker 2: overseas trading partners were more competitive than Australia and so
Speaker 2: reducing working hours would just see their overseas competitors dominate
Speaker 2: an increasingly globalized trade in a post World War two era.
Speaker 2: So while that might have been somewhat accurate when you
Speaker 2: look at some parts of the world, as I mentioned earlier,
Speaker 2: some big economies like the US and the UK had
Speaker 2: already given work as a weekend, so it doesn't really
Speaker 2: hold water entirely. The unions have pointed out that some
Speaker 2: conservative politicians at the time were keen to avoid the
Speaker 2: forty hour workweek. But I got to say the tune
Speaker 2: has definitely changed over time. I was reminded of the
Speaker 2: time when Prime Minister Scott Morrison in twenty nineteen, who
Speaker 2: is from the more conservative side of politics the Liberal Party,
Speaker 2: went against his more progressive opponent Bill Shortened for proposing
Speaker 2: a way to get more electric vehicles sold and used
Speaker 2: in Australia with this line.
Speaker 1: Bill Shorten wants to end the weekend when it comes
Speaker 1: to his policy on electric vehicles.
Speaker 2: And Scott Morrison went on to beat Bill Shorten at
Speaker 2: the election. Was it a line like this that helped him?
Speaker 2: Very possibly, I would say, because the weekend is sacred
Speaker 2: in Australia. And I spoke with Sally McManus, who is
Speaker 2: the Secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, and
Speaker 2: she quite succinctly said, quote, you wouldn't want to get
Speaker 2: in between an ordinary person and their right to a weekend.
Speaker 2: You'd be hard pressed to find anyone fighting against the
Speaker 2: right to a weekend in this day and age.
Speaker 3: No, I would agree with that, But when you are
Speaker 3: listing the reasons why people at the time or business
Speaker 3: groups at the time were rallying against this notion of
Speaker 3: a weekend. It did sound eerily familiar and like the
Speaker 3: same tune that people who are against the four day
Speaker 3: work week. Now you know all of these ideas of
Speaker 3: a loss of productivity, and you know what will happen.
Speaker 3: It will devastate businesses those sorts of things. So, I mean,
Speaker 3: it's been seventy seven years since the six day work
Speaker 3: week turned into five, and now we are, as I
Speaker 3: said before, kind of hurdling towards this idea of a
Speaker 3: four day work week. Where are we at with that now?
Speaker 2: Well, I was hoping you'd bring that out, Sarah. When
Speaker 2: I first looked at this idea of a weekend first
Speaker 2: coming into existence, some people said to me, the court
Speaker 2: should have barracked for a three day weekend instead of
Speaker 2: a turns weekend. But that's where we're out now. So
Speaker 2: the weekend was hard fought for, and the conversation is
Speaker 2: really increasingly focused on a four day work week and
Speaker 2: whether it could improve productivity and work them morale because
Speaker 2: we know, especially post COVID, that burnout rates are pretty
Speaker 2: high in most industries. In fact, Australia has one of
Speaker 2: the highest rates of burnout in the world, with Microsoft's
Speaker 2: work Index trend showing around sixty two percent of workers
Speaker 2: feel burnt out, compared to a global average of forty
Speaker 2: eight percent. So a few workplaces have now trialed a
Speaker 2: four day work week, like Manibank, the private health insurer,
Speaker 2: and in twenty twenty two there were about two dozen
Speaker 2: companies that trialed the four day work week and recorded
Speaker 2: a sixty four percent in burnout among staff, and more
Speaker 2: than a third of workers also said they felt less
Speaker 2: stressed at work. And it's trickled into politics too. The
Speaker 2: act government is considering a four day workweek trial for
Speaker 2: the public sector employees, and that was after a parliamentary
Speaker 2: committee had recommended it.
Speaker 3: I'm curious because in the forties the push was really
Speaker 3: led by the unions. Are we seeing the unions behind
Speaker 3: this current push for a four day working week in
Speaker 3: the way that they were behind you establishing the weekend
Speaker 3: back then.
Speaker 2: They definitely are considering it. In fact, when I spoke
Speaker 2: to Sally McManus, she said that they've been looking through
Speaker 2: some ideas of reducing the work week from thirty eight hours,
Speaker 2: which is what it's at now to thirty five, So
Speaker 2: that would take the number of hours worked down three
Speaker 2: hours spread across four days, but incomes wouldn't be affected.
Speaker 2: Salaries wouldn't be impacted by that kind of work week.
Speaker 2: So the unions are definitely looking at.
Speaker 3: And I mean they did have quite a bit to
Speaker 3: do with the right to disconnect legislation as well, So
Speaker 3: I guess there are just different ways that this is
Speaker 3: now being woven into the public conversation.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, but you also mentioned a really important point that
Speaker 2: I think is worth touching on, which is there was
Speaker 2: some resistance to the weekend initially from some of those
Speaker 2: employee groups, and there continues to be a little bit
Speaker 2: of pushback when it comes to looking at the four
Speaker 2: day workweek. There are some very genuine questions about how
Speaker 2: that would actually play out, what that would look like,
Speaker 2: and there are definitely some issues that some business groups
Speaker 2: are concerned about. So you and I have also spoken
Speaker 2: at length about the nature of the workplace as boss
Speaker 2: to employee, and I think it's just important to note
Speaker 2: that we as journalists also work in one of those
Speaker 2: industries where it could be really tricky to bring in
Speaker 2: a four day work week, just by the sheer nature
Speaker 2: of the news cycle. It's a twenty fourth to seven grow.
Speaker 3: If we could just switch it off one day of
Speaker 3: the week, no news today, bragging news.
Speaker 2: No, no one do anything interesting. But that would also
Speaker 2: require people to just not die on Sat Days because
Speaker 2: that's newsworthy. Significant events can occur at any time of
Speaker 2: the day. We just would never be able to predict it.
Speaker 2: So the four day work week's just definitely something we're
Speaker 2: going to keep hearing about. And in the meantime, Zara,
Speaker 2: Happy weekend anniversary to.
Speaker 3: Happy weekend Anniversary, and thanks for jumping on the plot
Speaker 3: again today, Harry. Thank you for joining us for another
Speaker 3: episode of The Daily OS. If you learn something and
Speaker 3: want to take it to trivia on Tuesday, let us know.
Speaker 3: We love hearing about all the fun facts that you
Speaker 3: pick up through the week. If you're listening on Spotify,
Speaker 3: you can leave a comment there. Otherwise, if you are
Speaker 3: watching on YouTube, can leave a comment on there. We
Speaker 3: will be back again tomorrow, but until then, have a
Speaker 3: great day.
Speaker 1: My name is Lily Madden and I'm a proud Runda
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