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Almost a quarter of workers globally work more than 48 hours per week, including 1.2 million Australians. Research has shown the adverse effects working long hours regularly can have on human health and workplace safety. The effects of long hours have also been shown to extend to families, communities and society more generally. Achieving healthy working time requires appropriate regulatory and institutional frameworks. A weak working time regulatory framework in Australia has contributed to the trend toward longer working hours for full-time employees. During a period where the nature of work has intensified in Australia, there has been little corresponding change in the regulatory framework. This essay aims to examine and assess the industrial instruments available in Australia for achieving healthy working time with a focus on the banking industry. It starts by dissecting the concept of healthy working time and its significance to Australia, with consideration to how healthy working time has evolved over the last 100+ years in Australia and internationally. The essay continues on to explore the relevance of regulatory and institutional frameworks for achieving healthy working time, with consideration to both the international and Australian experience. The next section of the essay starts to deal with the question of whether the current industrial instruments available in Australia are adequate for achieving healthy working time by examining the various instruments available under the Fair Work Act, with some reference to the contract of employment, in the context of the frameworks available internationally. The final section of the essay continues to deal with the question of whether the available industrial instruments are adequate for achieving healthy working time by evaluating them against the current leading framework in working time reform, the [European Union] EU Directive on Working Time. This is followed by a range of proposed reform options for consideration and conclusion.

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