Brazil Votes to End the Six-Day Workweek

Brasília — Brazil's Senate on Wednesday, October 14, approved a constitutional amendment that ends the "6x1" work schedule — six days on, one day off — and lowers the legal maximum workweek from 44 hours to 40, without any reduction in pay.

The amendment, known as PEC 221/2019, passed in two rounds on the same night, each by 75 votes to 1. A constitutional amendment needs at least 49 of the 81 senators. The only vote against came from Senator Hamilton Mourão. The Chamber of Deputies approved the same text in May, and because the Senate did not change it, the proposal does not go back to the lower house. It now goes to promulgation by the National Congress, the formal act that writes it into the Constitution.

O Globo reported that Senate President Davi Alcolumbre has told allies he expects to promulgate it next Tuesday, October 20.

What changes, and when

The amendment gives every worker the right to two paid days of weekly rest, one of them preferably on Sunday, and limits the normal working day to eight hours.

It arrives in steps:

• Sixty days after promulgation, employers must move staff to a five-days-on, two-days-off pattern and cut the maximum week from 44 hours to 42.
• Twelve months after that, the maximum falls to 40 hours. The whole transition takes 14 months.
• If promulgation happens in October, the first step would take effect in December 2026 and the 40-hour week in December 2027.

In between, the two extra hours must be spread across the five working days; split evenly, that is 8 hours and 24 minutes a day. After the transition, any work beyond eight hours a day or 40 a week must be paid as overtime.

There are exceptions. Through a collective agreement with a union, employers may still use a different pattern — even six days on — provided the extra day is made up with time off inside the same calendar month, so that workers average two paid rest days a week. Outsourced contractors who work for the government get 12 months, rather than 60 days, to end the six-day schedule. The shorter daily hours do not apply to university-educated employees earning at least 2.5 times the social security benefit ceiling, now about R$21,189 a month, though they too must get the five-and-two pattern. A later law may set temporary relief for micro-entrepreneurs and small firms.

Who works these hours

Brazil cut its legal week from 48 to 44 hours in the 1988 Constitution and has not touched it since.

During the debate, Senator Leany Lemos cited labor ministry and statistics-agency data showing 36.2 million formal job contracts with more than 40 contracted hours a week, close to 80% of the private-sector contracts analyzed. A study by Dieese, a research body funded by trade unions, estimates the change would benefit 26.8 million workers: 22 million with formal contracts and about 4.8 million informal workers who now work more than 40 hours.

Those long weeks fall mostly on lower-paid workers. A study by Ipea, a government economic research institute, found that 80% of contracts above 40 hours paid no more than two minimum wages, now R$3,242 a month.

Senator Paulo Paim, who is leaving the Senate in early 2027, spoke from the floor. "When I look back 30, 40, 50 years, I feel like a poor Black boy who waited 50 years for this moment," he said. "Anyone who worked in foundries, in factories, in joineries, in clay and pottery works, as I did and so many workers did, knows that this moment is special."

The objections

Nearly every senator who spoke said they would vote yes, but several attached warnings. Senator Marcos Pontes said the change could raise labor costs and hurt micro and small businesses, which employ many of the people on six-day schedules. Senator Carlos Portinho said there is no worker without an employer. Others asked for a "responsible transition" and for government help for employers. One senator, Vanderlan Cardoso, a businessman, said he had dropped the six-day schedule in his own companies more than five years ago and that it had helped him find staff.

Some opposition senators back a separate proposal, PEC 12/2026, that would allow hourly-paid flexible contracts. Government senators called that an attempt to undo Wednesday's change.

The vote came during Brazil's presidential runoff campaign. O Globo reported that allies of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who faces Flávio Bolsonaro in the runoff, are divided over whether he should attend the promulgation session. Flávio Bolsonaro, an opposition senator, was campaigning in Rio Grande do Sul and voted yes remotely.

What it means in practice

For a supermarket cashier, a security guard or a construction worker on a six-day schedule, the change means a second day off every week without a smaller paycheck, starting about two months after promulgation, and a shorter week a year after that.

For employers, it means rewriting rosters, possibly hiring more staff or paying overtime, and negotiating with unions where a different pattern is needed. Shops, restaurants and other businesses that open six or seven days a week are the most affected.

What happens next

Congress must hold the promulgation session. Once it does, the 60-day and 14-month clocks start. The rapporteur, Senator Omar Aziz, said some points, such as working hours in specific sectors, will need follow-up laws as quickly as possible, and the text allows a later law on relief for small firms. The separate flexible-contract amendment remains pending.