<P> The eight - hour day was the first topic discussed by the International Labour Organization which resulted in the Hours of Work (Industry) Convention, 1919 ratified by 52 countries as of 2016 . </P> <P> 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 industrialised world through legislative action . </P> <P> 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 . </P> <P> In Iran in 1918, the work of reorganizing the trade unions began in earnest in Tehran during the closure of the Iranian constitutional parliament Majles . The printers' union, established in 1906 by Mohammad Parvaneh as the first trade union, in the Koucheki print shop on Nasserieh Avenue in Tehran, reorganized their union under leadership of Russian - educated Seyed Mohammad Dehgan, a newspaper editor and an avowed Communist . In 1918, the newly organised union staged a 14 - day strike and succeeded in reaching a collective agreement with employers to institute the eight - hours day, overtime pay, and medical care . The success of the printers' union encouraged other trades to organize . In 1919 the bakers and textile - shop clerks formed their own trade unions . </P>

Where did the 8 hour work day come from