Working-Class Organisations and Popular Tourism, 1840-1970

Book excerpt: Today, many people take the idea of holidays for granted and regard the provision of paid time off as a right. This book argues that popular tourism has its roots in collective organisation and charts the development of the working class holiday over two centuries. This study recounts how short, unpaid and often unauthorised periods of leave from work became organised and legitimised through legislation, culminating with the Holidays with Pay Act of 1938. Moreover, this study finds that it was through collective activity by workers--through savings clubs, friendly societies and union activity--that the working class were originally able to take holidays, and it was as a result of collective bargaining and campaigning that paid holidays were eventually secured for all.