Popularly known as the eight-hour day movement or 40-hour week movement and also known as the short-time movement, had its origin in the Industrial Revolution in Britain, where industrial production in large factories transformed working life and imposed long hours and poor working conditions. With no regulation in work, the health, welfare and morale of working people took a downward trend. Child labour was at its pinnacle and common. The working hours in day would range from 10 to 16 hours for six days a week..

In 1810, Robert Owen raised the demand for a ten-hour day work and started it in his socialist enterprise at New Lanark. By 1817 he had formulated the goal of the eight-hour day and coined the slogan Eight hours labour, Eight hours recreation, Eight hours rest.

Although there were initial successes in achieving an eight-hour day in New Zealand and by the Australian labour movement for skilled workers in the 1840s and 1850s, most employed people had to wait to the early and mid twentieth century for the condition to be widely achieved through the industrialized world through legislative action.

The eight-hour day movement forms part of the early history for the celebration of Labour Day, and May Day in many nations and cultures. The evolution history of May day in few leading nations would provide some insight to the significance of this International Holiday.

Europe
At the turn of the 20th century the eight-hour day was introduced by Ernst Abbe at the Zeiss plants in Jena, Germany.

The 40-hour week were enacted in France during the Popular Front with the 1936 Matignon agreements.

In Portugal a vast wave of strikes occurred in 1919, supported by the National Workers' Union, the biggest labour union organization at the time. The workers achieved important objectives, including the historic victory of an eight-hour day.

In Russia the eight-hour day was introduced in 1917, four days after the October Revolution, by a Decree of the Soviet government.

Australia
The Australian gold rushes attracted many skilled tradesmen to Australia. Some of these trades people had been active in the chartism movement, and subsequently became prominent in agitation for better working conditions in the Australian colonies.
 
The Stonemasons' Society in Sydney issued an ultimatum to employers on 18 August 1855, that after six months masons would work only an eight-hour day. Construction of many buildings was occurring with the rapid increase in population caused by the gold rushes, so skilled labour was scarce. Stonemasons working on the Holy Trinity Church and the Mariners' Church decided not to wait and pre-emptively went on strike, thus winning the eight-hour day. They celebrated with a victory dinner on 1 October 1855.

United States
In the United States, Philadelphia carpenters went on strike in 1791 for the ten-hour day. By the 1830s, this had become a general demand. In 1835, workers in Philadelphia organized a general strike, led by Irish coal heavers.

The American Federation of Labor, meeting in St Louis in December 1888, set May 1, 1890 as the day that American workers should not work more than eight hours. The International Workingmen's Association (Second International), meeting in Paris in 1889, endorsed the date for international demonstrations, thus starting the international tradition of May Day.

On January 5, 1914, the Ford Motor Company took the radical step of doubling pay to $5 a day and cut shifts from nine hours to eight, moves that were not popular with rival companies, although seeing the increase in Ford's productivity, most soon followed suit.

The United States Adamson Act in 1916 established an eight-hour day, with additional pay for overtime, for railroad workers. This was the first federal law that regulated the hours of workers in private companies. The United States Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Act in 1917.

The eight-hour day was realized for many working people in the U.S. in 1938, when the Fair Labor Standards Act under the New Deal made it a legal day's work throughout the nation.

But, even today after a couple of century the secnario in most parts of the Indian subcontinent and several industires remains in a apathetic, following 17th and 18th century working priciples. Even the present young educated community are not aware of the International labour regulations and do not adhere to this basic norms. Many countries have evolved to follow such a norm to set balanced society and individual, without which the productivty, the family and last all the individual would be at stake.

If this pricinciple could be followed right away, something can be done to preserve the society and the individuals. Failing, which would surely result in the disintegrated and devolved human society and work culture in the next few years to come.