Superior Court Upholds Eight-Hour Day
A landmark court ruling in Spokane affirms the constitutionality of the eight-hour workday for municipal contractors.
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The city and state eight-hour law has been sustained by the superior court of Washington. A contractor named Broad, engaged in city work, had been requiring his men to work nine hours per day, despite a city ordinance mandating an eight-hour limit for public contracts. When Broad refused to sign a contract containing this provision and was subsequently arrested for violating the ordinance, he appealed to the superior court for a writ of habeas corpus, arguing that the law was unconstitutional and deprived him of his liberty. Judge Richardson, presiding over the case, held the law to be constitutional and denied the writ. While the matter is expected to be appealed to the supreme court, the ruling halts city contract activity in the interim, setting a significant precedent for labor rights in the region.
“The city and state eight-hour law has been sustained by the superior court of this state.”
The struggle for the eight-hour workday was a defining labor battle of the Progressive Era. Today's debates over gig economy regulation and worker classification represent a direct evolution of these same tensions between municipal labor laws and private contracting.
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