John Cain Lunch (August): A Fair Day's Work - With Sean Scalmer

IN-PERSON TICKET SALES CLOSE FRIDAY 15 AUGUST AT 12PM.

The length of the working day and the challenges of work–life balance are pressing issues for many Australians, as well as lively matters of public controversy. While the winning of the eight-hour day is celebrated as a past industrial achievement, contemporary discussions of working hours often overlook its rich history.

Tracing 150 years of campaigns for rights and for the fair distribution of productivity gains, historian Sean Scalmer shows how these movements successfully reduced the length of the standard working week from 60 to 38 hours per week, and how economic, social and political shifts since the early 1980s have stalled this long-term progress. Today, industrial laws provide inadequate protection for excessive hours, and Australian women increasingly shoulder long hours of paid work with the bulk of unpaid domestic labour. This has produced a social crisis for all Australians, but is yet to inspire adequate political action.

As debate over our working lives intensifies amid ongoing political, economic and technological challenges, Scalmer’s labour of love on the history of work and play affords us a way to understand the past so we can win back our time—collectively.

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Sean Scalmer is a Professor of History at the University of Melbourne. He is the author of seven books on labour and social movements, most recently: A Fair Day's Work: the quest to win back time (Melbourne University Press, 2025). This book is based especially on his work as the Coral Thomas Fellow at the State Library of New South Wales, 2022-23.

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Attend our in-person lunch and discussion at 12:30pm or watch the live stream remotely.

The live stream will commence at:

1:00pm AEST (QLD, NSW, ACT, VIC, TAS)
12:30pm ACST (NT, SA)
11:00am AWST (WA)

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Register here to reserve a seat at our Graduate House event. Your ticket includes lunch from 12:30pm followed by a discussion from 1pm.

If you purchase a live stream ticket, you will receive the live stream link by email.

Per Capita is committed to keeping its events accessible to those who may not be able to purchase a ticket. For this reason we are making a number of Concession Tickets available for unwaged/student/full age pension concessions. These tickets cover the cost of lunch plus a free ticket to the discussion.

Free tickets are available to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in recognition of the fact that this event is being held on stolen land. Please email info@percapita.org.au to request a free ticket.

If you are able to and would like to help us increase the number of Concession Tickets available, please consider a donation on top of your ticket purchase.