Flávio Bolsonaro, the Liberal Party’s candidate for president of Brazil, said Tuesday he’ll vote to end the country’s 6×1 workweek, reversing months of resistance to a proposal he had called opportunistic. The shift came one day before an expected Senate vote and 12 days before the presidential runoff against President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Sunday, 25 October.
The Reversal
“A maioria dos trabalhadores brasileiros quer o fim da escala 6×1,” Bolsonaro told reporters after visiting his father, according to Brasil de Fato, a left-leaning São Paulo outlet. Most Brazilian workers want the schedule gone, in other words. “Então, eu vou votar a favor do fim da 6×1,” he added. Then he offered a caveat: “só que a gente defende algo ainda melhor.” His camp, he said, supports something even better. Brasil de Fato reported that he didn’t say what.
That’s a sharp turn. For months, Bolsonaro had argued that workers should be free to negotiate their own hours with employers. Poder360, the Brasília political news site, reported Tuesday that he had concluded he couldn’t vote against the amendment, though he still considered the text poorly drafted and harmful to the economy. At a Brasília press conference on 6 October, he promised an “infinitely better” alternative to the Senate text and said “whoever wants to work more will work more,” Estadão Conteúdo reported through the Belém daily O Liberal.
Lula pressed him on the issue. On 7 October, he said he wanted to see how Bolsonaro would vote, Poder360 reported. O Liberal said Lula raised it again Monday and predicted most senators would back the change.
What the Amendment Does
The proposal is a constitutional amendment, a PEC, that would end the 6×1 schedule as the legal norm. Many retail, service and factory employees work six days for each day off under that pattern. Brazil’s Constitution already limits the normal working week to 44 hours and eight hours a day. The report compared that with the 40-hour weekly threshold for overtime pay under U.S. federal law.
Passage isn’t automatic. The amendment needs at least 49 of the 81 senators, or three-fifths, in each of two voting rounds. Senate President Davi Alcolumbre scheduled the first round for Wednesday, 14 October, according to Poder360 and O Liberal, though Brasil de Fato said it could come Wednesday or Thursday. Bolsonaro, a sitting senator for Rio de Janeiro, was expected to cast his own vote. Whether the PL would direct its senators to follow him remained unclear. The final text’s new weekly-hour limit couldn’t be checked against the official Senate record.
Costs for Employers and Investors
The report said U.S. companies that employ people in Brazil, including retailers, manufacturers and call centres, could face new scheduling rules if the amendment passes. Firms with large hourly workforces might need more staff or overtime to cover the same operating hours. Investors in New York-listed Brazilian shares such as Petrobras, Vale and Itaú Unibanco closely track labour costs and the fiscal outlook.
The runoff also carries trade stakes. The report said the United States imposed tariffs of up to 50% on Brazilian goods in 2025, Flávio Bolsonaro’s family is allied with President Donald Trump, and Lula has pressed Washington to lift the tariffs.
The Betting Markets
Prediction markets strongly favoured Bolsonaro. On 13 October, Polymarket gave him an 86.4% chance of winning at 12:35 p.m. ET and Lula 12.5%. Kalshi, which the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission regulates, showed Bolsonaro at 87.0% and Lula at 13.0% at 11:07 a.m. ET. More than US$180 million had traded on Polymarket since it opened. The source described those prices as bets, not polls, and noted that neither platform isolates the effect of a single campaign statement.
The winner takes office in January 2027. Bolsonaro’s support doesn’t guarantee passage, and he hasn’t said which “even better” alternative he favours or whether he’d seek changes after the vote.
Why This Matters:
A candidate who spent months defending workers’ freedom to set their own schedules has now backed a constitutional mandate that he himself considers poorly drafted and harmful to the economy. The timing says plenty about how powerful calendar politics can be 12 days before a runoff. For employers, the consequences are concrete: firms with large hourly workforces may need more staff or overtime to keep doors open, while investors tracking Petrobras, Vale and Itaú Unibanco will watch labour costs and the fiscal outlook. The unanswered question is whether Bolsonaro’s promised alternative would preserve flexibility between employers and workers, or make a rigid national rule the new default. Voters and markets are still waiting for details.