Renewed calls for shorter working week

ALTHOUGH the campaign for a shorter working week is as old as the Labour movement itself, in recent years it has all but been forgotten.

But it is about to enjoy a new lease of life as organisers get the campaign back on the road in 2005.

"The long hours we are putting in on the job have serious consequences for our health, for our fellow workers forced onto unemployment lines, and for our ability to lead the rich, fulfilling lives that should be ours by right," says a spokesperson for Industrial Workers of the World.

"Our lives should not be dominated by drudgery and toil, slaving away for endless hours to make our masters rich. Sixty years of stagnation is long enough - it’s time for people to once again take up their cudgels and resume the fight for shorter working hours."

There have been no reductions in the average working week in more than 60 years.

Indeed, working hours have been held steady only by the rapid growth of part-time, low-paid work - the proportion of workers putting in more than 48 hours a week on the job has been steadily increasing since 1948.