Fighting for fair work: How Australia’s workers changed the rules

Industrial milestones

1. The terror of West Gate Bridge
2. The rise of the eight-hour day
3. The Great Strike of 1917
4. The fight against asbestos
5. Safety on the job
6. Women workers get their rights
7. The 40-hour week

1. The terror of West Gate Bridge 

How tragedy on the Yarra reshaped Australia’s safety laws 

On 15 October 1970, Melbourne’s West Gate Bridge collapsed during construction, killing 35 workers in what remains Australia’s worst industrial disaster. The collapse occurred as engineers attempted to correct a misalignment between two bridge sections by loading the higher side with 10 massive concrete blocks, each weighing around eight tonnes. The intention was to push the span into alignment – but the pressure caused the structure to buckle and give way. In total, 2,000 tonnes of steel and concrete plummeted 50 metres into the Yarra River and nearby industrial yards. Many of those killed were eating lunch beneath the bridge in site huts, crushed in an instant when the span fell. 

This clip, from ATN News footage taken that day, captures the chaos and grief that followed. A shaken worker recounts how employees were told the bridge was safe, despite a similar incident having occurred in Wales. Behind him, rescuers and engineers sift through the wreckage. The rawness of the scene conveys not only the scale of the tragedy but also the profound failure of safety oversight that allowed it to happen. 

A Royal Commission later found serious design flaws, poor communication and inadequate supervision, describing the event as ‘utterly unnecessary’. Its recommendations led to major reforms in occupational health and safety (OH&S) law, embedding the principle that employers have a legal ‘duty of care’ to provide safe workplaces. 

The disaster also shifted the balance of industrial relations. Unions pushed for stronger roles in safety negotiations, statutory OH&S committees, and mandatory site inspections involving worker representatives. Safety training, incident reporting and grief counselling became integral parts of workplace management. 

In the decades since, these reforms have saved countless lives. The legacy of West Gate is written into every hard hat, site audit and safety protocol – a lasting reminder that no job is worth a life. 

Explore more footage from the West Gate Bridge collapse

2. The rise of the eight-hour day  

The stonemasons’ walkout that sparked a global movement 

Australian workers owe much to a determined group of Melbourne stonemasons. On 21 April 1856, they downed tools and marched off the job, demanding shorter hours without a cut in pay. At the time, most workers laboured up to 14 hours a day, six days a week, in punishing conditions and with little security. Their ideal – ‘eight hours labour, eight hours recreation, eight hours rest’ – captured the belief that life should allow time for both learning and leisure, not just work. 

The stonemasons’ stand succeeded, making Victoria’s building workers among the first in the world to achieve an eight-hour day. Their victory ignited a national movement for fairer working hours, represented by the ‘888’ emblem and commemorated each year as Labour Day. In the clip below, Peter Luck's Bicentennial Minutes series condenses years of industrial struggle into an entertaining bite-sized segment, with a neglected memorial as a poignant symbol of how we sometimes take hard-fought rights for granted. 

Three key arguments shaped the stonemasons' cause: that Australia’s hot climate made long shifts unsafe; that the workers needed time for education and self-improvement; and that families and communities thrived when people had time beyond the job. These ideas turned a local protest into a foundation of social progress. 

The principle gradually spread across industries. In 1916, Victoria and New South Wales passed the Eight Hours Act, and by 1948, the federal government had introduced the 40-hour, five-day workweek. The eight-hour day remains a cornerstone of Australian labour history – a reminder that every hard-won right began with workers who dared to claim their time back. 

Explore commemorating the eight-hour workday in Melbourne in 1984

3. The Great Strike of 1917  

When 100,000 workers stood up for fairness and control 

The Great Strike of 1917 achieved little for those who stopped work, yet it remains one of the most significant industrial disputes in Australian history. 

It began on 2 August 1917 at Sydney’s Eveleigh Railway Workshops and Randwick Tramsheds, when around 6,000 railway and tramway employees walked off the job. The immediate cause was the introduction of a time-card system to monitor individual productivity – a change workers viewed as an intrusion on their autonomy and a threat to job security. 

The strike spread rapidly, involving nearly 100,000 workers across New South Wales and Victoria, including coal miners, waterside workers and sailors. Over six weeks, transport and supply lines were paralysed, while weekly rallies in Sydney’s Domain drew crowds of up to 150,000 people. 

This footage is a clip from The Great Strike, a film released in October 1917 during the dispute’s final days and restored by the NFSA in 2017 from two surviving fragments. It provides a rare visual record of the time – workers filling the Domain, banners raised, solidarity made visible. The film has been interpreted both as a union document and as political propaganda, revealing the charged atmosphere of early 20th-century Sydney and the growing power of visual media in shaping public perception. 

The strike ended in September 1917 without success. Many unions were deregistered and thousands of workers returned under harsher conditions – yet the Great Strike endures as a defining moment in Australia’s labour history and the struggle for workplace control.

Explore more footage from The Great Strike

4. The fight against asbestos 

How workers exposed the ‘miracle material’ that poisoned them 

Asbestos was once hailed as a ‘miracle material’ – strong, versatile and resistant to heat. It became a staple of Australian construction, shipbuilding and manufacturing throughout the 20th century. Yet, as early as the 1930s, medical evidence linked asbestos exposure to serious illness, including asbestosis and lung cancer. Despite this, protections for workers remained minimal. Basic dust control measures were introduced in the 1930s, but enforcement was weak – and many industries simply ignored them. 

By the 1960s and 1970s, research confirmed the link between asbestos and mesothelioma, prompting unions and health advocates to demand action. Restrictions followed in the 1980s, leading to a nationwide ban in December 2003 on the manufacture, import and sale of asbestos products. Today, strict laws regulate its removal and management, requiring trained, licensed contractors and protective gear. 

The 1985 documentary Acceptable Risk – produced for the Australian Postal and Telecommunications Union – gives this history a human face. In the featured clip, former linesman Albert Lucas reflects on losing ‘25 good years’ to asbestos-related disease. Filmed in his dressing gown, his quiet testimony captures the personal toll of corporate neglect. Intercut with typewritten notes alleging employer cover-ups and interviews on other workplace hazards such as electromagnetic radiation, the film exposes how organisations long defined ‘acceptable risk’ without consulting workers. Raw and advocacy-driven, Acceptable Risk stands as a powerful indictment of delayed regulation – and a reminder that safety standards were hard-won through workers’ persistence. 

5. Safety on the job  

How unions used film to educate, protect and save lives 

Unions in Australia began harnessing film as a tool for education and advocacy in the early 1950s, recognising its power to inform and mobilise workers. The movement was led by the Waterside Workers’ Federation Film Unit, established in Sydney in 1953 by union members Jock Levy, Keith Gow and Norma Disher. 

One of the unit’s key productions, Think Twice, is a 20-minute occupational safety film commissioned by the Boilermakers’ Society of Australia. It was created to raise awareness among metalworkers and boilermakers about the dangers of electric and oxyacetylene welding – including burns from heat and molten particles, eye injuries from ultraviolet and infrared rays, and respiratory illness or death caused by toxic fumes in confined spaces. 

Using dramatic re-enactments of real accidents followed by demonstrations of safe practices, Think Twice illustrated the importance of protective gear, proper ventilation and hazard awareness. Narrated by Leonard Teale, it was filmed on Cockatoo Island – a major Sydney shipbuilding site – and featured real workers and union members rather than actors. 

The film was widely screened across the boilermaking industry by unions, government departments and private companies, helping to educate workers and reduce accidents. More than a training film, Think Twice represents the unions’ early and forward-thinking use of media to promote workplace safety. It stands as a testament to how collective action and creative communication were used to protect workers and embed a culture of safety in Australian heavy industry. 

Explore vintage road and driver safety ads in our Learn to Drive curated collection

6. Women workers get their rights 

The Melbourne tailoresses who fought for equal pay and respect 

When firms such as Beath, Schiess and Co. sought to reduce already inadequate piece-rate wages, forcing tailoresses to work up to 14-hour days and often take garments home for unpaid labour, the women had had enough. On 5 December 1882, approximately 300 women withdrew their labour, forming the Tailoresses’ Association of Melbourne, Australia's first women’s trade union. The strike quickly gained support from the broader labour movement and the Victorian public, drawing attention to the harsh ‘sweating’ conditions in the clothing industry, and by February 1883, the strike had expanded to 1,200 participants, securing wage improvements and establishing collective bargaining for women workers.  

Although not all demands were met, the dispute began conversations around anti-sweating campaigns and factory reform, challenging entrenched gender norms and redefining women’s role in industrial activism. 

This excerpt from For Love or Money (1983) offers a compelling visual and auditory interpretation of the strike, a pivotal moment in Australian labour history. Through a montage of archival photographs, etchings and newspaper headlines, combined with voice-over readings of contemporary texts, the clip reconstructs the oppressive conditions endured by women in the clothing trade. The avant-garde soundtrack and rapid image sequencing heighten the sense of urgency.

Explore a curated collection of historic feminist films

7. The 40-hour week  

The post-war campaign that won Australians their weekends 

Australia’s 40-hour working week was the result of a long and determined campaign by unions and workers seeking a fairer balance between labour and life. The push for shorter hours began as early as the 1850s, when Melbourne stonemasons demanded the eight-hour day – summed up by the enduring motto: ‘eight hours labour, eight hours recreation, eight hours rest.’ At the time, many workers toiled 10 hours or more per day, six days a week. 

The key federal breakthrough came on 8 September 1947, when the Arbitration Court ruled to reduce the standard working week from 44 hours to 40, effective from 1 January 1948. The decision established a five-day working week. Employer groups warned of economic harm, but unions successfully argued that workers deserved time for family, rest and community life – pointing to the social and health benefits of shorter hours. 

This audio clip, recorded by the ACTU (Australian Council of Trade Unions), captures the conviction behind the case for change. It reflects how union leadership helped secure one of the most transformative social reforms of the post-war era and reminds audiences of the continuing importance of collective advocacy in defending workers’ rights. 

The 40-hour week became a foundation for later improvements – including annual leave, paid sick leave and, by 1981, a further reduction to 38 hours in some industries. It remains a landmark in Australian industrial history – a symbol of the persistent struggle for dignity, fairness and time beyond the workplace. 

Looking for more? 

• Explore more footage of the West Gate Bridge collapse
• Watch more reconstructed footage from The Great Strike
• Learn about the 'equal pay paradox' affecting women workers in the 1930s

Main image: Trade union procession with banners proceeding along King William Street, Adelaide. State Library South Australia, SLSA PRG 280_1_9_186.