Labour Day is a New Zealand public holiday commemorated each year on the fourth Monday in October. All Christchurch City Libraries branches will be closed on Monday 26 October 2020. Labour Day (spelt Labor Day in America) is commemorated by many countries on different dates. Labour Day celebrates when the eight hour working day and the 48 hour working week became the law in New Zealand in 1899. This was later changed to 40 hours.
Other workers also bargained for an eight hour day, but as more skilled workers came to New Zealand and competed for work, employers were able to change the conditions of employment to suit themselves.
Parnell and others kept working for improvements to working conditions for tradespeople and labourers.
Nine years later Labour Day became an official public holiday, celebrated on the second Wednesday in October. This was changed to the fourth Monday in 1910.
More information
- Resources from our catalogue about Labour Day
- View our pictures of Christchurch at work
- Labour Day images on Canterbury Stories and the Discovery Wall
- Labour Day Te Ara
- Labour Day – a history - Information from NZ History.net.nz
![A maid of all work [1908], CCL PhotoCD 17, IMG0091](https://christchurchcitylibraries.com/Heritage/Photos/Disc17/IMG0091.jpg)