Brazil Senate Cuts Workweek to 40 Hours Before Runoff

Brazil’s Senate voted 75 to 1 on Wednesday to cut the maximum workweek from 44 hours to 40 without reducing pay, a constitutional change that comes just days before the Oct. 25 presidential runoff and leaves the country’s employers to absorb the cost.

The amendment passed in two rounds, each with the same 75-1 tally among the Senate’s 81 members. Former Vice President Hamilton Mourao, who served under President Jair Bolsonaro, cast the only dissenting vote. The measure sets a 40-hour weekly limit and two rest days; the government says more than 37 million workers could benefit. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva backed the amendment and was expected to sign it into law the following week.

The Politics of the Timing

The calendar tells much of the story. Lula hopes the measure will strengthen his standing against Flávio Bolsonaro in the runoff. Senate President Davi Alcolumbre scheduled the vote between the election’s first and second rounds, a choice that benefits the incumbent. “Didn’t I say this was going to work?” Alcolumbre asked a leading senator from Lula’s Workers’ Party after the result.

Carla Beni, an economist at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, a think-tank and university, offered a measured read. “Any change made in an election year can be considered an electoral measure,” she said. Lula’s government had worked on the proposal since last year, but the vote came during a week of other moves to shore up support: new fuel tax cuts, an extension of existing subsidies, a pledge to pardon debts owed to the federal government by more than 3.6 million small businesses, and increased payments in a welfare program for university students. The workweek change was regarded as the pinnacle of those initiatives.

The Cost Question

The business community didn’t get the transition it wanted. Companies have 14 months to adopt the shorter workweek. The adoption period became a key sticking point in negotiations, with many business leaders and lawmakers pushing for a gradual change over 10 years. They lost that argument.

Many Bolsonaro allies said they expected the new schedule to raise the cost of living. Recent polls showed widespread support for the measure despite opposition from many business owners. Flávio Bolsonaro, who had opposed the initiative until early that week and previously advocated a more flexible payment-by-the-hour regime with individual negotiations between employees and employers, voted remotely while campaigning in southern Brazil. Analysts and politicians said his Senate allies stopped blocking the popular measure because they didn’t want it to hurt his neck-and-neck race. He had bested Lula by 2.2 million votes in the first round.

Hours after announcing his support, Bolsonaro told business owners that the new Congress, where his party could reach a simple majority with allied parties come February, could review the measure, O Globo reported.

Who Gets Left Out

The law has a built-in limit. People working in the shadow economy, including freelancers and delivery drivers, won’t be affected by the legislation. Workers outside the formal system get no new rest days from a mandate that binds only employers who follow the rules.

Lula framed the vote in personal terms. “Today is a day to celebrate a historic achievement for millions of workers,” he said in a statement. “This means having more time to live, rest, be with family, watch your children grow up, take care of yourself, and enjoy life.” Many senators chanted his name after the vote, while Bolsonaro supporters quickly left the chamber. Pro-Lula protests held nationwide since the previous week made the shorter workweek a theme, and celebrations broke out Wednesday in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. “We will continue to be on the streets until this inhumane work week ends,” said Lunna Normande, 23, at a Rio protest with hundreds of people.

Regional Context

Brazil’s labor groups pointed to neighbors for precedent. Chile passed its 40-Hour Law in 2023, and the workweek fell to 40 hours as of last year, applying to all workers covered by Chile’s Labor Code without reducing pay. Colombia recently enacted a 42-hour week. In February, Mexican lawmakers approved a proposal by President Claudia Sheinbaum that gradually shortens the 48-hour workweek to 40 by 2030. Argentina, under President Javier Milei, moved the opposite way and may extend its 48-hour workweek.

Why This Matters:

A mandatory 10 percent cut in standard hours, with pay held constant, shifts real costs onto private employers, and Brazil has given them 14 months rather than the 10 years many sought. Whether that cost shows up in prices, hiring or margins remains an open question, and Bolsonaro’s own allies predict higher living costs. The measure also lands in a crowded week of tax cuts, subsidy extensions and debt pardons, all before a runoff that polls call neck-and-neck. Mexico’s phase-in to 2030 shows a slower path was available. The shadow-economy exclusion is another lesson: rules that bind only formal employers can widen the gap with informal workers. If the next Congress revisits the law in February, businesses will face a year of planning under legal uncertainty.