60 days. That is how long millions of Brazilian workers have to wait for a second paid day off each week. Congress enacted on Friday (16) the constitutional amendment that ends the so-called 6x1 schedule, in which employees work six days for one day of rest. If the text is published in the official gazette today, the first stage of the new rules takes effect on December 15, according to a calculation by Folha de S.Paulo.
In practice, the weekly cap drops from 44 to 42 hours in this first phase, with no pay cut. That is two fewer hours per week, roughly a morning of work handed back to the employee. One of the two rest days should preferably fall on a Sunday.
How it works: unlike an ordinary bill, a constitutional amendment does not need the president's signature. It becomes part of the Constitution once enacted by Congress, in a ceremony attended by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and the deadlines start counting from publication in the official gazette, which may come out in an extra edition still on Friday.
Transition timeline
The full transition takes 14 months. After the first 60 days, companies and workers get another 12 months at the 42-hour cap, until the maximum workweek settles definitively at 40 hours. During that period, collective bargaining agreements may authorize workdays longer than eight hours, as long as the two rest days are kept, according to G1.
It is the first change to Brazil's general working-hour rules since the 1988 Constitution, 38 years ago, when the weekly limit fell from 48 to 44 hours. The enacted text amends Article 7 of the Constitution, which lists workers' rights, according to InfoMoney.
Who gets different rules
Not every category will follow the same calendar. Continuous and essential activities, such as health care, security, transport and urban cleaning, may organize shifts differently through collective agreements. Workers with a college degree earning more than 2.5 times the Social Security ceiling will have their own rules on hour tracking, but keep the right to two days of rest.
For outsourced workers serving government agencies, the reduction depends on a formal addendum to existing contracts, and public bodies have up to one year to make that adjustment. InfoMoney also notes that the new schedule does not cover individual microentrepreneurs (MEIs) or civil servants governed by their own statutes.
For companies, the math is direct. Paying the same salary for fewer hours makes each worked hour about 10% more expensive, estimates Jorge Soares, a labor lawyer at IW Melcheds Advogados, in an interview with G1. Businesses that run seven days a week, such as supermarkets and hospitals, may need new hires, overtime pay or a reshuffle of shifts.
"Reducing the workweek requires reviewing schedules, sizing teams, breaks, hour banks, overtime and, where applicable, collective bargaining", labor lawyer Tatiana Sant'Anna, of the firm Durão, Almeida & Pontes, told G1.
The Senate approved the amendment on Wednesday (14) by 75 votes to 1, with only Senator Hamilton Mourão voting against, and it was enacted by the heads of the Senate, Davi Alcolumbre, and the lower house, Hugo Motta. The vote came ten days before the presidential runoff, after candidate Flávio Bolsonaro announced he would back the proposal and freed his party's caucus to support it, according to InfoMoney.