Lula Sends Bill to Cut Brazil’s Workweek to 40 Hours, End Widespread 6×1 Schedules

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Tuesday sent Congress a bill to end Brazil’s widespread six‑days‑on, one‑day‑off work schedule and cut the legal workweek from 44 to 40 hours with no pay reduction, triggering a fast‑track legislative battle over labor rules, business costs and prices.

The proposal was formally communicated in an extra edition of the Diário Oficial da União, which recorded that the government asked for “urgência constitucional,” a procedure that gives each house of Congress 45 days to vote. If the Chamber of Deputies or the Senate fails to do so, the bill can block other votes in that chamber until it is addressed.

In a summary sent to lawmakers and released to the press, the government describes a Projeto de Lei that “altera a Consolidação das Leis do Trabalho ... para dispor sobre a redução da duração normal do trabalho e sobre o descanso semanal remunerado dos trabalhadores que especifica.”

At the core of the initiative are two concrete changes for millions of employees covered by Brazil’s Consolidação das Leis do Trabalho, or CLT, the main labor code. First, the statutory workweek ceiling would fall from 44 to 40 hours. Second, workers would gain at least two days of paid weekly rest, consolidating a five‑days‑on, two‑days‑off pattern instead of six days of work followed by one day of rest.

The bill’s summary states that salaries could not be cut solely because of the shorter workweek, a clause the government is highlighting as “salário protegido: vedada qualquer redução salarial.”

The plan is broad in scope. It is aimed at workers covered by the CLT and certain special labor statutes, explicitly including domestic employees, retail and commercial workers, professional athletes, aeronauts, radio broadcasters and other categories. It is also designed to reach “escalas especiais e regimes diferenciados,” or special schedules and differentiated regimes, rather than only standard daytime shifts.

Some special shifts would remain possible. The government summary says 12‑hours‑on, 36‑hours‑off arrangements could continue when authorized in collective bargaining, as long as the average weekly working time does not exceed 40 hours.

A 6×1 schedule – six consecutive workdays with one day of rest – is common in sectors such as commerce and services. Unions and labor advocates have long criticized the pattern, pointing to fatigue, long cumulative hours and difficulties balancing family life, particularly for women who bear most unpaid care work at home.

Brazil’s current maximum of eight hours per day and 44 hours per week is written into the Constitution and has been a reference point in the CLT for decades, even as other aspects of labor law were repeatedly revised. Lula’s proposal is the first major move of his current administration to rewrite those core limits.

Lula has framed the initiative as a quality‑of‑life measure. In a social media post reproduced by the government’s news agency, he said: “A proposta devolve tempo aos trabalhadores e trabalhadoras: tempo para ver os filhos crescerem, para o lazer, para o descanso e para o convívio familiar. Um passo para um país mais justo e com mais qualidade de vida para todos.”

The economic stakes are significant and contested. A February technical note by the Instituto de Pesquisa Econômica Aplicada, a federal research institute, estimated that cutting the workweek and ending 6×1 would raise average labor cost per hour, with some scenarios showing around a 7.84% increase. The study argued that the overall effect on companies’ operating costs could be similar to past minimum wage hikes, with impacts varying by sector and depending on how firms adjust staffing and productivity.

Employer groups have circulated a much more negative outlook. The Confederação Nacional da Indústria, which represents industrial companies, released simulations warning that the changes could reduce gross domestic product by about 0.7% in one scenario – around 76 billion to 77 billion reais – and drive up the total wage bill in ways that would likely feed through to consumer prices.

Major union confederations such as CUT and CTB have supported ending 6×1 and moving to a 40‑hour cap, arguing that shorter weeks would improve health, family life and gender equality and could, in some circumstances, encourage hiring. Business associations, including the CNI and trade groups in services and hospitality, have warned of higher labor costs and inflationary pressure and are expected to oppose the bill or push to soften it in Congress.

There is also a looming legal debate. The Constitution’s reference to an eight‑hour day and 44‑hour week has led some legal scholars and politicians to argue that any change should be made through a constitutional amendment, known as a PEC, rather than through an ordinary bill amending the CLT. The government opted for the PL route, and opponents may challenge that choice once the full text is available.

The detailed wording of the bill was not yet public in the Diário Oficial on Tuesday night. Media reports indicated that the full text will appear later in the Chamber of Deputies’ system when the proposal is formally registered there, and that lawmakers are likely to seek amendments and transitional rules even under the urgency procedure.

No official statistic shows exactly how many workers currently follow 6×1 schedules, because Brazil’s main employment databases track total weekly hours, not days worked. Analysts use proxies, such as the number of people reporting 41 to 44 hours per week, to estimate the affected population, but those figures are approximate.

With 2026 a national election year, the decision to send the bill under constitutional urgency puts Congress under pressure to take a clear position on a visible, pro‑worker measure in a tight timeframe. The next 45 days will determine not only whether Brazil’s legal workweek shrinks, but also how the costs and benefits of that shift are distributed across workers, companies and consumers.