ABSTRACT
The history of May Day has huge significance for Indian workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. It commemorates the struggle of 19th-century workers in the United States for an eight-hour working day. In most countries, it wasn't until after the First World War that legislation was passed restricting the working day to eight hours. Most interestingly, the First World War proved to industrialists what labour researchers and trade unionists had been claiming for years – that longer working hours do not lead to increased productivity. Convention No 29 of the International Labour Organisation enjoins every member nation which ratifies the Convention to suppress the use of forced or compulsory labour in all its forms within the shortest possible period.
