Workers' Day is a public holiday in at least the following countries : Angola, Bulgaria, China (where it is celebrated as International Labour Day and is a 3 day holiday), Cuba, Namibia, Malta, Marshal Islands, Mozambique, Panama, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Its history is closely linked to the labour movement and the May Day celebrations celebrated in other parts of the world.

Workers' Day is a national public holiday in South Africa and since 1994, it has been celebrated on 1 May of each year. It has its origins within the historical struggles of workers and their trade unions internationally for solidarity between working people in their struggles to win fair employment standards and more importantly, to establish a culture of human and worker rights and to ensure that these are enshrined in international law and the national law of those countries aligned to the International Labour Organisation. In pre-1994 South Africa, the demand for the annual observance of the day as a public holiday became a rallying point for workers and their trade unions and was one of a number of annually significant days to symbolise and mobilise resistance to the Apartheid government and its racial policies.