Flávio Bolsonaro reversed months of opposition to back the amendment
Brazil’s Senate approved a constitutional amendment on Wednesday shortening the maximum workweek from 44 to 40 hours and banning six-day workweeks, a victory for President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva less than two weeks before the country’s presidential runoff.
The vote passed 75 to 1. The lone dissenter was Hamilton Mourão, former vice president under Jair Bolsonaro and a senator allied with Flávio Bolsonaro, the president’s opponent. The amendment, which had passed the lower house in May, will affect more than 30 million workers, particularly those in retail, restaurants and hotels — most of them low-paid and among the groups Lula has lost the most support from since the 2022 election that he won against Jair Bolsonaro.
The amendment’s approval caps months of political maneuvering by Lula, who had championed the change in an effort to cut into the first-round lead secured by Flávio Bolsonaro. Lula celebrated on social media after the vote, writing that “ending the 6x1 schedule is about more than changing working hours. It means more time to live, rest, be with family, watch your children grow up, look after yourself and enjoy life.”
Flávio Bolsonaro’s reversal was the most striking element of the vote. He had spent months opposing the change. In May he said the proposal could cause “mass unemployment,” an argument that employers’ associations opposed to the reform have repeatedly made. On Tuesday he announced a reversal, saying “the majority of Brazilian workers” supported the change. The Folha newspaper reported that Flávio told business leaders that, if elected, he would review parts of the new amendment; several allied senators echoed the point during Wednesday’s vote. Even after voting for it, Flávio said he “supports something even better” — a long-standing alternative proposal under which pay would be based on hours actually worked. He voted remotely while campaigning in southern Brazil.
The amendment’s path to Wednesday’s vote was not assured. Many observers had believed that after the far right’s sweeping first-round victory last week — which secured a broad congressional majority starting in 2027 — the Senate would no longer bring the proposal up. Senate President Davi Alcolumbre, whose relationship with Lula has at times been rocky, put the measure to a vote.
Political analysts said the timing could matter. Victor Escobar, a researcher at the Laboratory of Parties, Elections and Comparative Politics, said the change “could indeed benefit Lula’s re-election campaign” — and that it would “speak to how voters feel economically when they cast their ballot; they can feel more relieved with a change in their working schedule.”
The reform began as a TikTok movement called “Life Beyond Work,” founded by a pharmacy assistant who entered politics after the campaign’s success and was later embraced by Lula. His party spent months pushing the Senate to bring the proposal to a vote.
Public backing was broad. Polls showed more than 70% of the general population supported the change, and more than half of Flávio Bolsonaro’s own voters. Polling suggested the proposal’s popularity cut across the presidential preference — a factor that Escobar and other political scientists have cited in arguing that Lula has gained momentum in the final stretch, along with pro-Lula demonstrations that have drawn thousands and an effort to build a stronger presence on social media.
None of the changes will take effect before the October 25 runoff. After Alcolumbre promulgates the amendment, a 60-day period begins before six-day workweeks are abolished. The maximum workweek will then drop from 44 to 42 hours before reaching 40 hours after a further 14 months.
Researchers and workers described the underlying conditions the amendment is meant to change. Marilane Oliveira Teixeira, a professor and researcher at a study centre at the University of Campinas who has spent months examining the possible impacts of the change, said there was no shortage of evidence showing how harmful having only one day off is to workers. “People who work a 6x1 schedule are practically prevented from having even a minimum level of social life,” she said, adding that the negative effects could include illness, workplace risks and exhaustion, “especially for women, who still carry the burden of unpaid domestic work.”
Lilian Cristo dos Santos, 50, has one day off from her job as a saleswoman at a home appliances shop in Salvador, Bahia. “There’s no time to go to the doctor, to the beach, to the salon, to look after myself; I wanted to have time to study and I can’t. On my only day off, I have to clean the house and look after my family,” she said. Santos said she voted for Lula but has colleagues who chose Flávio Bolsonaro. “They say he represents change – well, yes, but certainly for the worse,” she said.
Lula has continued announcing benefits in the days before the vote, including debt relief for microentrepreneurs, and published a letter to evangelical Christians — who have historically favored Bolsonaro — stressing his commitment “to ensuring that everyone has two days off a week, because life is not just about work.”
Escobar said the race remains competitive: “Although most people have already decided their vote, there are some who are more responsive to political moves, and Lula has been trying very strongly to reach them. … The race still looks somewhat tangled, tied, with some degree of advantage for Bolsonaro, but it is still a very open election.”