Brazil's Senate ends the six-day work week
The reform cuts the workweek from 44 to 40 hours with no pay cut and goes to promulgation unchanged, eleven days before the presidential runoff.
Brazil's Senate on Wednesday, Oct. 14, approved a constitutional amendment that ends the 6x1 schedule, a work week of six days on and one day off. The reform, known as PEC 221/2019, guarantees two paid rest days a week, preferably including Sunday, and cuts the maximum workweek from 44 to 40 hours with no reduction in pay, according to Migalhas, a Brazilian legal news outlet.
The vote was the same in each of the two rounds a constitutional amendment requires: 75 in favor and one against, with 77 of the 81 senators voting. The measure needed 49. The only vote against came from Sen. Hamilton Mourão, according to the same outlet. The lower house had approved the text in May and the Senate changed nothing, so it does not go back to the Chamber of Deputies.
The change arrives in stages. Two months after publication, the weekly cap drops to 42 hours and a 5x2 schedule, five days on and two off, takes effect. One year and two months after publication, the limit is 40 hours, according to Telesíntese, a Brazilian telecom news site.
The amendment does not need a presidential signature: it is promulgated in a session of the National Congress. A video from Agência Senado, the Senate's official news agency, indicates that Senate President Davi Alcolumbre announced the promulgation for Friday. The date does not appear in the text of the report and remains unconfirmed.
Who it covers
The labor-union research institute Dieese, using 2025 national household survey data, estimates that 26.8 million workers could benefit: about 22 million in formal jobs and 4.8 million in the informal economy. Formal contracts with a workweek above 40 hours total 36.2 million, according to figures from the Labor Ministry and the statistics agency IBGE that Migalhas reports.
The reform has exceptions. It does not apply to public servants or to workers with a university degree who earn at least 21 188 reais a month, according to Agência Senado. Telesíntese describes that second group differently, with a threshold of 2.5 times the ceiling of the general social security system, and the two wordings will have to be checked against the promulgated text. The 12x36 schedule, twelve hours on and thirty-six off, stays in place through collective agreement.
Costs and the political calendar
The rapporteur, Sen. Omar Aziz, said, according to Migalhas, that it is the biggest labor achievement since the 1988 Constituent Assembly. Sen. Marcos Pontes voted in favor but warned about higher labor costs, especially for micro and small businesses. The text provides transition rules for them through a future complementary law.
The vote comes eleven days before Brazil's presidential runoff on Oct. 25. With promulgation pending, what remains to be seen is the date the amendment is published, because both transition deadlines depend on it.
