Brazil’s Senate voted to change the country’s main law and cut work hours. The vote was 75 to 1. Full-time workers usually work six days and 44 hours a week. The change gives them a shorter workweek and two paid days off each week. Worker groups and employers will agree on the days off.
The change will happen in steps. First, the workweek will fall from 44 to 42 hours. This starts 60 days after the law passes. Workers will get the extra day off at the same time. One year later, the workweek will fall to 40 hours. Employers will have time to change work plans or find more workers.
The lower house, the other part of Brazil’s lawmaking body, approved the same change in May. The president does not need to sign it. The plan first appeared in 2019. It called for 34 hours, but lawmakers later changed this to 40. Brazil last changed these work hours in 1988, from 48 to 44 hours a week.
