The Hours of Work (Industry) Convention 001 limited working time to 8 hours a day and 48 hours a week.

An average work week for a full-time manufacturing employee in the United States in 1890 was 100 hours.

The origins of the movement for an 8-hour day began with the Industrial Revolution in Britain.

In 1817, British textile manufacturer Robert Owen raised the demand and coined the phrase: 8 hours labor, 8 hours recreation, 8 hours rest.

The first piece of British legislation governing work hours was the Factory Act of 1833, limiting the workday for children in factories.

In the United States, the Labor Reform Association founded in 1864 and the Grande 8-Hour League of Massachusetts formed a year later became the centers of the American movement.

Meanwhile, in Australia, trade unionist James Stephens led stonemasons in Melbourne to agitate for an 8-hour working day, which they eventually won.

With the growing integration of the world economy and the development of the global trade union movement, the call for an 8-hour working day became global.

By the start of the 20th century, the 8-hour workday was becoming a reality for more and more people, and at the end of the First World War, 8-hour laws of varying scope had been enacted across Europe.

In the meantime, the social situation was explosive, and labor unrest widespread.

"Unrest so great that the peace and harmony of the world are imperiled."

To face this challenge, the International Labor Organization was created in 1919 as part of the Treaty of Versailles.

The peace treaty included the declaration that "the adoption of an 8-hours day or a 48-hours week as the standard to be aimed at" was of "special and urgent importance".

This urgent call was soon met at the first session of the International Labor Conference in Washington in 1919, with the adoption of convention 001.

A landmark for workers' rights, the convention has had far-reaching impact on normalizing the 8-hour workday and has been an enduring pillar of modern working life.