The story begins 40 kilometres south east of Glasgow, in the small town of New Lanark – today a UNESCO world heritage site. Straddling the powerful Clyde river, the town was established in the 18th century around a cotton mill which used the water flow to spin its wheels. There a young Welsh industrialist Robert Owen fell in love with the daughter of the mill owner, joined the business and began a unique social experiment. Dismayed at the harsh conditions endured by workers, many of them children, with 16 hour days not uncommon, he immediately established a 10 hour working day. He would whittle this down further to eight hours, coining the slogan "eight hours labour, eight hours rest, eight hours recreation" which would eventually spread throughout the industrialised world.

In Australia, stonemasons in Melbourne marched on Parliament House in 1856 to secure the eight hour week. The slogan "888" to this day still adorns many union buildings. So as we prepare to celebrate Labour Day this Monday in NSW, lets reflect on how those past victories are under threat as work – aided and abetted by new technology – encroaches on our private lives. You might not realise it, but over the course of a year, you are donating an entire 40 hour working week to your employer. Unpaid. Today, clocking off is a thing of the past. The cotton mill spins constantly in your pocket.

The dim glow of iPhone screens lights the bedrooms of the nation. As those clever Swedes trial a six hour day, in Australia, we're going the other way, with a push to normalise weekend work by equalising Sunday and Saturday penalty rates. The Productivity Commission's recent draft report on Australia's workplace relations system found weekend work is now common, with some four million of us – more than one in three in the workforce – working at least a Saturday or Sunday each week. "The traditional Monday to Friday week is not dead, but nor is it as predominant as in the past." It seems unlikely we can turn back the clock on this blending of our work and social lives.

We've long since ditched the quest for the "work life balance" and consultants talk instead of ways to enable "work life integration". It's not all bad. New technology has no doubt made us more productive at work (when we're not checking Facebook, that is). Technology also grants workers, parents in particular, flexibility to work the hours they can best get the work done. But the need to allocate time to "disconnect" completely on holidays has never been more important.

It's been a long time since we increased annual leave in this country. It was only during the Great Depression that some workers in Australia were granted the right to one week's paid holiday. During World War Two, this right was extended to all workers. The push for two weeks leave began among metal trades workers and soon spread to other workplaces. Public servants in NSW led the push for three weeks' leave in 1958 and in 1974 the Whitlam government awarded federal public servants four weeks' paid leave – a right that was extended to all workers via a successful ACTU campaign. It's time for another push to give workers a five week annual break.

The extra week would go some way to clawing back all that overtime we're doing on our iPhones. But there are benefits for business too. It is short-sighted to run employees ragged answering emails at all hours of the day. People who work more than 55 hours a week have a 33 per cent greater risk of having a stroke, compared to people who work 35 to 40 hours a week, according to a recent study published in The Lancet. A rested worker is a more productive worker. Another week of annual leave would also boost the economy by boosting domestic tourism and giving us all a chance to spend some of that hard earned money – creating more jobs.

Some of the richest nations in the world have already embraced the idea of five weeks annual leave, including those lucky Swedes, but also Luxembourg, France, Norway, Austria and Finland. And we have better beaches. In his 1913 essay "A New View of Society", Owens wrote of the importance of "innocent amusements and rational recreation" in nurturing the working classes. "In summer, the inhabitants of the village of New Lanark have their gardens and potato grounds to cultivate; they have walks laid out to give them health and the habit of being gratified with the ever-changing scenes of nature – for those scenes afford not only the most economical, but also the most innocent pleasures which man can enjoy." So I hope you spend some time walking in nature this weekend, because you're due a break.

Leave the iPhone at home.