Brazil’s Senate has approved a constitutional amendment, a change to the country’s basic law, by 75 votes to one. It reduces the full-time workweek from 44 to 40 hours and provides two paid days off each week, replacing the customary six-day work schedule. Unions, which represent workers, will negotiate with employers over which days employees take off.
The reduction will take place in two stages. Sixty days after the amendment’s passage, weekly hours will fall to 42, and the extra day off will begin. The limit will drop to 40 hours one year later. This gradual schedule gives employers time to reorganize working hours or hire additional staff. Brazil’s lower house approved an identical measure in May. Because the change does not require the president’s signature, no further presidential approval is needed.
The proposal, known as PEC 221, was first introduced in 2019 with a target of 34 hours a week. That figure was later raised to 40. The amendment marks the first legislative change to working hours since 1988, when Brazil reduced the full-time workweek from 48 to 44 hours.
