WEBVTT - How did we get the right to a weekend? 0:00:00.600 --> 0:00:03.760 Already and this is this is the daily This is 0:00:03.760 --> 0:00:04.160 the daily. 0:00:04.240 --> 0:00:16.079 Ohs oh, now it makes sense. Good morning and welcome 0:00:16.120 --> 0:00:19.000 to the Daily OS. It's Tuesday, the tenth of September. 0:00:19.120 --> 0:00:24.239 I'm Harry, I'm Zara. Weekends are sacred in Australia. Whether 0:00:24.280 --> 0:00:26.520 it's kicking back to have a few beers with mates, 0:00:26.640 --> 0:00:29.920 exploring the great outdoors, or putting your feet up. It's 0:00:29.920 --> 0:00:32.479 a rite that work has fought for and was granted 0:00:32.520 --> 0:00:35.720 by the courts seventy seven years on. We're starting to 0:00:35.800 --> 0:00:39.360 look at four day work weeks. In today's rewind and 0:00:39.520 --> 0:00:42.200 deep Dive. We'll look at how the Ausie weekend came 0:00:42.240 --> 0:00:45.279 to life and how the nature of work is changing. 0:00:45.720 --> 0:00:47.680 But first, Sarah, what's making headlines? 0:00:51.479 --> 0:00:54.720 The Royal Commission into Defense and Veteran Suicide has handed 0:00:54.760 --> 0:00:58.640 down its final report, recommending a major overhaul of recruitment 0:00:58.720 --> 0:01:03.240 processes and better regulation of veterans and defense departments. The 0:01:03.320 --> 0:01:06.880 Royal Commission lasted three years, heard from hundreds of witnesses 0:01:06.920 --> 0:01:09.720 and received more than five and a half thousand submissions 0:01:10.000 --> 0:01:12.920 on the prevalence of poor mental health in Australia's military. 0:01:13.480 --> 0:01:16.560 It found one thousand, six hundred and seventy seven serving 0:01:16.640 --> 0:01:19.920 and ex Defense Force personnel had died by suicide in 0:01:19.959 --> 0:01:23.120 the years nineteen ninety seven to twenty twenty one. That's 0:01:23.160 --> 0:01:26.720 more than twenty times those killed on active duty. The 0:01:26.800 --> 0:01:30.280 Royal Commission made one hundred and twenty two recommendations, including 0:01:30.360 --> 0:01:33.600 reforming the culture of the military and strengthening accountability for 0:01:33.640 --> 0:01:36.440 the health and well being of eighty f members. The 0:01:36.480 --> 0:01:38.959 Government will now consider whether it will adopt any of 0:01:38.959 --> 0:01:42.960 these recommendations. If this story has raised any concerns for you, 0:01:42.959 --> 0:01:45.720 you can reach out to Lifeline any time on thirteen 0:01:45.840 --> 0:01:49.400 eleven fourteen or open arms on one eight hundred zero 0:01:49.440 --> 0:01:50.840 one one zero four six. 0:01:53.760 --> 0:01:56.840 A group of Western Australian farmers are set to protest 0:01:56.920 --> 0:02:00.560 outside Parliament House in Cambridge today against the government's ban 0:02:00.800 --> 0:02:05.040 on live sheep exports. In July, legislation passed the Federal 0:02:05.080 --> 0:02:09.520 Parliament to introduce a live sheep export ban by May eight. 0:02:10.120 --> 0:02:14.240 Western Australia is the only state still conducting live sheep exports, 0:02:14.520 --> 0:02:18.600 which have been criticized by animal welfare groups. Now advocacy 0:02:18.680 --> 0:02:22.239 group Keep the Sheep is protesting the ban, which they 0:02:22.280 --> 0:02:27.640 say will quote damage regional communities and impacted multiple industries. 0:02:28.000 --> 0:02:32.480 Today's protest in Canberra follows rallies in Perth and Regional wa. 0:02:35.440 --> 0:02:38.840 Multiple polls released this week show Kamala Harris and Donald 0:02:38.880 --> 0:02:41.840 Trump neck and neck in the US presidential race just 0:02:41.880 --> 0:02:45.120 two months out from the November election. A national poll 0:02:45.200 --> 0:02:47.720 from The New York Times in Siena College showed Trump 0:02:47.760 --> 0:02:51.040 ahead of Harris by just one percent, while CBS News 0:02:51.040 --> 0:02:54.280 and Yugov polling in Key States showed Harris ahead of Trump, 0:02:54.560 --> 0:02:58.120 also just by one percent. The candidates will officially face 0:02:58.160 --> 0:03:00.920 off for the first time on live televis tomorrow morning 0:03:01.040 --> 0:03:04.480 Australian time. That'll be the first debate since late June, 0:03:04.520 --> 0:03:06.800 when Trump debated current President Joe Biden. 0:03:09.680 --> 0:03:12.480 And Today's good news. It turns out galaxies are a 0:03:12.520 --> 0:03:16.760 lot bigger than scientists initially estimated, according to new research 0:03:16.800 --> 0:03:20.840 from Durham University. An image taken by the researchers showed 0:03:20.880 --> 0:03:24.880 the gas around galaxies reaches much further into space than 0:03:24.960 --> 0:03:29.240 previously thought. According to the research, the discovery could help 0:03:29.320 --> 0:03:32.960 us to understand how galaxies build mass over time, and 0:03:33.040 --> 0:03:35.960 could impact how different galaxies interact. 0:03:39.160 --> 0:03:42.080 Harry, I saw your piece on this over the weekend 0:03:42.200 --> 0:03:44.760 and thought that it was an excellent piece of trivia 0:03:44.920 --> 0:03:47.720 that people could go and take to their Tuesday trivia 0:03:47.800 --> 0:03:49.640 nights to say, hey, do you know how long the 0:03:49.680 --> 0:03:51.680 weekend's been around formally in Australia. 0:03:51.760 --> 0:03:53.000 Would you have gotten it right before? 0:03:53.080 --> 0:03:56.720 Certainly not, would have theyiled that one. But I think 0:03:56.800 --> 0:03:59.680 that this is so interesting because you know, us here 0:04:00.320 --> 0:04:03.560 twenty twenty four believe that the weekend is this kind 0:04:03.640 --> 0:04:06.240 of enshrined right that we have to turn off, and 0:04:06.680 --> 0:04:09.520 you know, especially with right to disconnect laws, especially to 0:04:09.520 --> 0:04:11.760 turn off. But it hasn't always been that way. 0:04:12.360 --> 0:04:16.520 When I first thought about the weekend coming into existence 0:04:16.520 --> 0:04:19.760 for the first time seventy seven years ago, I sort 0:04:19.760 --> 0:04:22.800 of thought, Okay, that's a long time ago. It's been, 0:04:23.160 --> 0:04:26.400 you know, seventy seven years. But then you look back 0:04:26.440 --> 0:04:29.640 and think, nineteen forty seven wasn't actually that long ago. 0:04:29.839 --> 0:04:32.599 I mean, my grandparents, I was going to say, any 0:04:32.640 --> 0:04:36.840 about older listeners will take great offense to us. So 0:04:37.000 --> 0:04:41.280 long ago exactly, and the whole concept of a work 0:04:41.360 --> 0:04:44.080 is right to some knockoff time just didn't really exist 0:04:44.120 --> 0:04:46.560 and there wasn't even really a word for it until 0:04:46.720 --> 0:04:50.080 maybe the nineteen thirties nineteen forties when this idea of 0:04:50.120 --> 0:04:55.080 a weekend actually started to spread and pick up around 0:04:55.120 --> 0:04:55.520 the world. 0:04:56.040 --> 0:04:59.120 And what was the typical day for an Australian worker 0:04:59.360 --> 0:05:03.240 prior to to this weekend actually becoming a thing. 0:05:03.760 --> 0:05:05.720 I'm sure a lot of people who are listening are 0:05:05.839 --> 0:05:08.760 visual learners like me. So I wanted to put myself 0:05:08.880 --> 0:05:13.720 into the boots of a steel factory worker. He and 0:05:13.960 --> 0:05:17.240 I can say he, because it was a largely masculine 0:05:17.240 --> 0:05:20.320 industry at the time, would get up at the crack 0:05:20.400 --> 0:05:24.039 of dawn maybe year around five am and head out 0:05:24.040 --> 0:05:27.560 to the factory floor slog away burning iron ore to 0:05:27.640 --> 0:05:31.760 make steel and would clock off sometime in the evening. 0:05:32.320 --> 0:05:35.440 Some factories days were even longer and squeezed even more 0:05:35.440 --> 0:05:38.800 out of their workers, and people would normally work six 0:05:38.920 --> 0:05:42.840 days a week and the only sanctified day off was 0:05:42.880 --> 0:05:45.840 a Sunday because in Australia at the time we had 0:05:45.880 --> 0:05:49.880 a predominantly Anglo Christian population who was running the show 0:05:50.080 --> 0:05:52.480 and Sunday is the sacred day of rest. 0:05:52.839 --> 0:05:55.280 And so then, how did this idea of the weekend 0:05:55.520 --> 0:05:55.960 come to be? 0:05:56.440 --> 0:05:59.520 It was many, many years in the making, and looking 0:05:59.520 --> 0:06:02.719 back on it, Australia was actually comparatively late compared to 0:06:02.839 --> 0:06:07.000 some other Western countries, so in the US, UK, New Zealand, 0:06:07.120 --> 0:06:10.039 they had all developed the idea of the forty hour 0:06:10.120 --> 0:06:13.880 work week before they entered the Second World War. Once 0:06:13.920 --> 0:06:17.960 the war ended in nineteen forty five, Australian workers decided 0:06:18.000 --> 0:06:20.599 to barrack for this right to reduce their hours. But 0:06:21.200 --> 0:06:22.839 this had been a fight that had been going on 0:06:22.880 --> 0:06:27.240 for decades, and many union groups and organizers brought legal 0:06:27.279 --> 0:06:33.960 action against some industries, including car manufacturers, metal workers, tailors, stonemasons, 0:06:34.000 --> 0:06:36.599 boiler makers. That's not a word I've heard in the 0:06:36.640 --> 0:06:40.520 recent past, but at the time was a very big industry. 0:06:41.000 --> 0:06:45.039 The unions had pushed for a reduction in working hours, 0:06:45.279 --> 0:06:48.560 and on the eighth of September in nineteen forty seven, 0:06:49.000 --> 0:06:53.320 the Commonwealth Court of Arbitration made a pretty important ruling 0:06:53.400 --> 0:06:56.400 that gave life to the idea of the forty hour 0:06:56.520 --> 0:07:00.880 working week, and in handing down its unanim decision, the 0:07:00.920 --> 0:07:04.200 court actually said, and I quote, the future will be 0:07:04.360 --> 0:07:08.839 watched with concern and interest. So I can't go back 0:07:08.880 --> 0:07:11.360 and ask the judges what they were thinking when they 0:07:11.400 --> 0:07:14.240 made this decision, But that kind of language just gives 0:07:14.280 --> 0:07:16.240 you a sense of how they knew. There was a 0:07:16.280 --> 0:07:17.560 lot writing on this. 0:07:17.520 --> 0:07:20.960 Decision, and I mean that, as you said, betrays a 0:07:21.000 --> 0:07:22.840 lot of the thinking at the time, which was that 0:07:22.880 --> 0:07:25.960 it was this really novel concept and it was new 0:07:26.200 --> 0:07:30.440 and untested, at least in the Australian market, whether people 0:07:30.480 --> 0:07:32.480 who are posed it or groups that are posed it 0:07:32.520 --> 0:07:33.560 at the time, i'd presume. 0:07:33.640 --> 0:07:36.640 So, yeah, definitely. And in fact, some employer groups had 0:07:36.680 --> 0:07:40.720 made pretty detailed arguments against introducing a forty hour work week. 0:07:40.880 --> 0:07:44.000 So they said that it would devastate some businesses, It 0:07:44.000 --> 0:07:46.920 would lead to lower productivity, there would be good shortages, 0:07:47.120 --> 0:07:50.880 price increases, and they leaned on this idea that some 0:07:51.120 --> 0:07:55.280 overseas trading partners were more competitive than Australia and so 0:07:55.600 --> 0:07:59.840 reducing working hours would just see their overseas competitors dominate 0:08:00.080 --> 0:08:03.520 an increasingly globalized trade in a post World War two era. 0:08:04.280 --> 0:08:06.720 So while that might have been somewhat accurate when you 0:08:06.760 --> 0:08:09.480 look at some parts of the world, as I mentioned earlier, 0:08:09.680 --> 0:08:12.400 some big economies like the US and the UK had 0:08:12.480 --> 0:08:15.920 already given work as a weekend, so it doesn't really 0:08:16.000 --> 0:08:19.880 hold water entirely. The unions have pointed out that some 0:08:20.000 --> 0:08:23.080 conservative politicians at the time were keen to avoid the 0:08:23.160 --> 0:08:25.880 forty hour workweek. But I got to say the tune 0:08:25.920 --> 0:08:30.000 has definitely changed over time. I was reminded of the 0:08:30.040 --> 0:08:34.080 time when Prime Minister Scott Morrison in twenty nineteen, who 0:08:34.160 --> 0:08:37.640 is from the more conservative side of politics the Liberal Party, 0:08:38.120 --> 0:08:42.000 went against his more progressive opponent Bill Shortened for proposing 0:08:42.080 --> 0:08:45.800 a way to get more electric vehicles sold and used 0:08:45.960 --> 0:08:48.280 in Australia with this line. 0:08:48.000 --> 0:08:50.520 Bill Shorten wants to end the weekend when it comes 0:08:50.559 --> 0:08:52.640 to his policy on electric vehicles. 0:08:52.400 --> 0:08:54.520 And Scott Morrison went on to beat Bill Shorten at 0:08:54.520 --> 0:08:58.280 the election. Was it a line like this that helped him? 0:08:58.760 --> 0:09:02.360 Very possibly, I would say, because the weekend is sacred 0:09:02.480 --> 0:09:06.080 in Australia. And I spoke with Sally McManus, who is 0:09:06.120 --> 0:09:10.080 the Secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, and 0:09:10.160 --> 0:09:13.600 she quite succinctly said, quote, you wouldn't want to get 0:09:13.600 --> 0:09:17.000 in between an ordinary person and their right to a weekend. 0:09:17.600 --> 0:09:20.040 You'd be hard pressed to find anyone fighting against the 0:09:20.120 --> 0:09:21.920 right to a weekend in this day and age. 0:09:21.960 --> 0:09:23.640 No, I would agree with that, But when you are 0:09:23.679 --> 0:09:27.319 listing the reasons why people at the time or business 0:09:27.320 --> 0:09:29.920 groups at the time were rallying against this notion of 0:09:29.960 --> 0:09:33.800 a weekend. It did sound eerily familiar and like the 0:09:33.840 --> 0:09:35.959 same tune that people who are against the four day 0:09:36.000 --> 0:09:38.360 work week. Now you know all of these ideas of 0:09:38.360 --> 0:09:41.360 a loss of productivity, and you know what will happen. 0:09:41.400 --> 0:09:44.760 It will devastate businesses those sorts of things. So, I mean, 0:09:44.800 --> 0:09:47.280 it's been seventy seven years since the six day work 0:09:47.320 --> 0:09:50.400 week turned into five, and now we are, as I 0:09:50.559 --> 0:09:53.320 said before, kind of hurdling towards this idea of a 0:09:53.360 --> 0:09:56.160 four day work week. Where are we at with that now? 0:09:56.440 --> 0:09:59.480 Well, I was hoping you'd bring that out, Sarah. When 0:09:59.559 --> 0:10:02.280 I first looked at this idea of a weekend first 0:10:02.320 --> 0:10:06.080 coming into existence, some people said to me, the court 0:10:06.120 --> 0:10:09.199 should have barracked for a three day weekend instead of 0:10:09.240 --> 0:10:13.040 a turns weekend. But that's where we're out now. So 0:10:13.160 --> 0:10:16.520 the weekend was hard fought for, and the conversation is 0:10:16.559 --> 0:10:19.719 really increasingly focused on a four day work week and 0:10:20.000 --> 0:10:24.360 whether it could improve productivity and work them morale because 0:10:24.640 --> 0:10:28.440 we know, especially post COVID, that burnout rates are pretty 0:10:28.520 --> 0:10:32.000 high in most industries. In fact, Australia has one of 0:10:32.040 --> 0:10:35.840 the highest rates of burnout in the world, with Microsoft's 0:10:35.920 --> 0:10:39.800 work Index trend showing around sixty two percent of workers 0:10:39.840 --> 0:10:43.480 feel burnt out, compared to a global average of forty 0:10:43.559 --> 0:10:47.800 eight percent. So a few workplaces have now trialed a 0:10:47.840 --> 0:10:51.000 four day work week, like Manibank, the private health insurer, 0:10:51.520 --> 0:10:54.240 and in twenty twenty two there were about two dozen 0:10:54.440 --> 0:10:58.199 companies that trialed the four day work week and recorded 0:10:58.280 --> 0:11:03.160 a sixty four percent in burnout among staff, and more 0:11:03.200 --> 0:11:06.000 than a third of workers also said they felt less 0:11:06.040 --> 0:11:10.520 stressed at work. And it's trickled into politics too. The 0:11:10.640 --> 0:11:14.440 act government is considering a four day workweek trial for 0:11:14.480 --> 0:11:18.440 the public sector employees, and that was after a parliamentary 0:11:18.440 --> 0:11:20.200 committee had recommended it. 0:11:20.559 --> 0:11:23.280 I'm curious because in the forties the push was really 0:11:23.360 --> 0:11:27.080 led by the unions. Are we seeing the unions behind 0:11:27.200 --> 0:11:29.520 this current push for a four day working week in 0:11:29.520 --> 0:11:32.640 the way that they were behind you establishing the weekend 0:11:32.679 --> 0:11:33.040 back then. 0:11:33.480 --> 0:11:36.520 They definitely are considering it. In fact, when I spoke 0:11:36.640 --> 0:11:39.679 to Sally McManus, she said that they've been looking through 0:11:39.760 --> 0:11:44.160 some ideas of reducing the work week from thirty eight hours, 0:11:44.200 --> 0:11:46.920 which is what it's at now to thirty five, So 0:11:47.040 --> 0:11:50.000 that would take the number of hours worked down three 0:11:50.040 --> 0:11:54.239 hours spread across four days, but incomes wouldn't be affected. 0:11:54.480 --> 0:11:57.920 Salaries wouldn't be impacted by that kind of work week. 0:11:58.080 --> 0:12:00.080 So the unions are definitely looking at. 0:12:00.480 --> 0:12:02.080 And I mean they did have quite a bit to 0:12:02.080 --> 0:12:04.560 do with the right to disconnect legislation as well, So 0:12:04.600 --> 0:12:06.480 I guess there are just different ways that this is 0:12:06.520 --> 0:12:09.640 now being woven into the public conversation. 0:12:09.920 --> 0:12:12.680 Absolutely, but you also mentioned a really important point that 0:12:12.720 --> 0:12:16.080 I think is worth touching on, which is there was 0:12:16.200 --> 0:12:19.439 some resistance to the weekend initially from some of those 0:12:19.440 --> 0:12:23.240 employee groups, and there continues to be a little bit 0:12:23.240 --> 0:12:25.360 of pushback when it comes to looking at the four 0:12:25.400 --> 0:12:30.160 day workweek. There are some very genuine questions about how 0:12:30.200 --> 0:12:33.000 that would actually play out, what that would look like, 0:12:33.600 --> 0:12:37.600 and there are definitely some issues that some business groups 0:12:37.640 --> 0:12:41.560 are concerned about. So you and I have also spoken 0:12:41.840 --> 0:12:45.240 at length about the nature of the workplace as boss 0:12:45.280 --> 0:12:48.680 to employee, and I think it's just important to note 0:12:48.760 --> 0:12:51.920 that we as journalists also work in one of those 0:12:51.960 --> 0:12:54.720 industries where it could be really tricky to bring in 0:12:54.720 --> 0:12:57.600 a four day work week, just by the sheer nature 0:12:57.640 --> 0:13:00.040 of the news cycle. It's a twenty fourth to seven grow. 0:13:00.000 --> 0:13:01.360 If we could just switch it off one day of 0:13:01.400 --> 0:13:05.840 the week, no news today, bragging news. 0:13:05.720 --> 0:13:08.360 No, no one do anything interesting. But that would also 0:13:08.440 --> 0:13:11.880 require people to just not die on Sat Days because 0:13:11.960 --> 0:13:16.560 that's newsworthy. Significant events can occur at any time of 0:13:16.600 --> 0:13:19.719 the day. We just would never be able to predict it. 0:13:20.320 --> 0:13:23.319 So the four day work week's just definitely something we're 0:13:23.360 --> 0:13:27.080 going to keep hearing about. And in the meantime, Zara, 0:13:27.200 --> 0:13:28.840 Happy weekend anniversary to. 0:13:29.040 --> 0:13:31.920 Happy weekend Anniversary, and thanks for jumping on the plot 0:13:31.920 --> 0:13:34.920 again today, Harry. Thank you for joining us for another 0:13:34.960 --> 0:13:37.199 episode of The Daily OS. If you learn something and 0:13:37.240 --> 0:13:39.320 want to take it to trivia on Tuesday, let us know. 0:13:39.520 --> 0:13:41.760 We love hearing about all the fun facts that you 0:13:41.800 --> 0:13:45.319 pick up through the week. If you're listening on Spotify, 0:13:45.360 --> 0:13:47.640 you can leave a comment there. Otherwise, if you are 0:13:47.679 --> 0:13:50.400 watching on YouTube, can leave a comment on there. We 0:13:50.440 --> 0:13:52.680 will be back again tomorrow, but until then, have a 0:13:52.679 --> 0:13:53.120 great day. 0:13:55.800 --> 0:13:58.079 My name is Lily Madden and I'm a proud Runda 0:13:58.320 --> 0:14:03.280 Bungelung Cargoton woman, Gadigol Country. The Daily Oz acknowledges that 0:14:03.360 --> 0:14:05.840 this podcast is recorded on the lands of the Gadighl 0:14:05.840 --> 0:14:09.200 people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and torrest Rate 0:14:09.240 --> 0:14:12.160 island and nations. We pay our respects to the first 0:14:12.200 --> 0:14:14.680 peoples of these countries, both past and present.