Labour Day Collection
Curated by NZ On Screen team 20 items
Curated to mark Labour Day, this collection features titles that relate to Kiwi working life, from economic revolutions and industrial disputes to Gliding On.
Labour Day
Labour Day commemorates the struggle for an eight-hour working day. Kiwi workers were among the first in the world to claim this right — in 1840, carpenter Samuel Parnell won an eight-hour day for workers in Wellington. This collection brings together 20 titles that involve Kiwi working life: from economic revolutions and an industrial dispute negotiated live on air (Post Office Go Slow), to public service comedy Gliding On and a portrait of union leader Ken Douglas.
Television
Series
“There are twenty-four hours per day given us; eight of these should be for work, eight for sleep, and the remaining eight for recreation and in which for men to do what little things they want for themselves ...”
— Carpenter Samuel Parnell working out his vision for working life in the new settlement, 1840