Senate Approves Amendment Ending Brazil’s 6x1 Work Scale

Overview

• The Senate voted 75–1 in both rounds on Wednesday, Oct. 14, to approve PEC 221/2019; because it is a constitutional amendment the text now goes to promulgação by the Mesas of the Chamber and the Senate rather than to presidential sanction.
• After promulgação the law will take effect in two steps: two months later the maximum workweek falls to 42 hours and two paid days off begin, and 14 months after promulgação the limit becomes 40 hours with an eight‑hour daily cap and a ban on nominal salary cuts.
• The PEC preserves collective bargaining to shape transition rules, creates exceptions for high‑income professionals and continuous services, and leaves special rules for micro and small firms to a future complementary law.
• Estimates of economic impact diverge sharply: industry groups warn of large rises in employer costs and higher prices, while public research bodies and some academics project smaller macro effects or possible job losses of several hundred thousand.
• Passage is being used in the presidential campaign as a political win for Lula, drew last‑minute support from figures including Flávio Bolsonaro, and produced a surge of online reaction with social‑media monitoring showing a large, mostly favorable spike in mentions.