Brazil 6×1 Work Schedule Faces a Decision Week in Congress

BRAZIL · POLITICS

Brazil’s Congress opens its last full voting week before the October elections on Monday, after a pact between President Lula and the heads of both chambers put the end of the Brazil 6×1 work schedule and the “blusinhas tax” on small imports at the top of the agenda.

A pact at the presidential palace

The deal was sealed on Wednesday 26 August at the Palácio da Alvorada, the president’s official residence. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva sat down with Chamber Speaker Hugo Motta and Senate President Davi Alcolumbre.

The three men fixed a five-item agenda for the week of 31 August to 4 September. Congress calls this an “esforço concentrado”, a concentrated-effort week with votes scheduled from Monday to Friday.

The list covers the amendment ending the Brazil 6×1 work schedule and a public-security amendment. It adds the measure killing the blusinhas tax, a critical-minerals bill and a tax regime for data centres.

Alcolumbre left the meeting with a public promise. He said the Senate would deliberate these matters during the effort week, the last before the October election.

The meeting mattered because the two men had barely spoken for months. Lula needs Senate movement to turn campaign promises into law before voters cast their ballots.

What ending the Brazil 6×1 work schedule would change

The Brazil 6×1 work schedule means six days of work for one day of rest. It is the standard week in shops, restaurants, pharmacies and private security across Brazil.

The government says about 14 million Brazilians work under it. That is roughly one third of all formal jobs registered in the country’s labour database.

The Chamber of Deputies has already approved the constitutional amendment in two rounds. The votes were 472 to 22 and then 461 to 19, an unusually broad majority.

The approved text sets a maximum week of 40 hours spread over five days. It guarantees two days of paid rest, forbids any salary cut and phases the change in gradually.

We covered the Chamber vote and the Senate’s earlier hesitation. The links sit at the end of this article.

Wednesday in the constitution committee

The next test comes on Wednesday 2 September in the Senate’s Committee on Constitution and Justice, known by its Portuguese initials CCJ. The committee decides whether the Brazil 6×1 work schedule amendment is constitutional before any floor vote.

The rapporteur is Senator Omar Aziz of the PSD party, from Amazonas state. Alcolumbre said Aziz told him the report is being written for presentation on Wednesday.

The opposition can still request a 24-hour review, which would push the committee vote by a day. That is a standard procedural tool and is widely expected.

Here is the catch. Alcolumbre has promised committee deliberation, not a floor vote, and an amendment needs 49 of 81 senators in two separate plenary rounds.

Only weeks ago the Senate president said such amendments would wait until after the election. His language this week was careful: the matter, he said, is now “processing properly” under house rules.

Business wants the vote after the election

The loudest resistance to the Brazil 6×1 work schedule comes from employers. The National Confederation of Industry, the CNI, leads a manifesto signed by 869 business entities, including 27 state industry federations.

The document calls the debate legitimate but asks Congress to postpone the decision until after October. An election-season vote, it argues, pressures lawmakers into a technical decision without technical debate.

The CNI prices the 40-hour week at up to R$267 billion (US$51.6 billion) a year in extra payroll costs. That would raise formal labour costs by as much as 7 percent economy-wide.

Industry alone would absorb around R$88 billion (US$17 billion), an increase of about 11 percent. Commerce and services federations have joined the campaign with their own demands.

Their proposal is a slower law with sector-by-sector and regional adjustments. They point to the pension and tax reforms, which took years of negotiation, as the model to follow.

CNI president Ricardo Alban took the case directly to Speaker Motta earlier this year. Motta promised a balanced process, and the Chamber’s final text already softened the original 36-hour demand to 40.

The blusinhas tax runs against a deadline

The second front is cheaper imports. A provisional measure issued in May, numbered MP 1.357/2026, zeroed the 20 percent import tax on international online purchases worth up to US$50.

Brazilians nicknamed that charge the “taxa das blusinhas”, the little-blouse tax, because it hit cheap clothing bought on foreign apps. The measure loses validity on 8 September if Congress does not convert it into law.

The Chamber votes on the text on Monday, with the Senate to follow. Alcolumbre gave a guarantee on this one: the measure, he said, will not expire.

Domestic retailers want the tax back and warn of job losses, an argument we covered last week. The government reads the exemption as a pocketbook win for lower-income voters, especially women.

What to watch from here

Monday brings the Chamber vote on the blusinhas measure. Wednesday brings the CCJ votes on the Brazil 6×1 work schedule amendment and the public-security amendment.

If the amendment clears the committee, the question becomes the Senate floor calendar. Without an Alcolumbre scheduling decision, the Brazil 6×1 work schedule survives the week unchanged.

If the import measure fails by 8 September, the 20 percent tax returns weeks before the election. No faction in Congress wants to own that outcome.

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