Brazil's Congress approves a constitutional amendment cutting the working week to 40 hours

16 October 2026

Brazil's Congress approved a constitutional amendment that cuts the working week from 44 hours to 40 and gives employees two days off a week without cutting their salary.
Senators passed the amendment by 75 votes to one; the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house, had passed it in May.
The change is described as the biggest overhaul of workers' rights since Brazil's return to democracy in 1988 and is estimated to benefit more than 30 million workers.
The vote came less than two weeks before the second round of the presidential election on 25 October.
In the first round, Flavio Bolsonaro took 47 per cent of the vote and Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva 45.2 per cent, both short of the 50 per cent of valid votes needed to avoid a run-off.
None of the changes takes effect before the run-off: after the Senate president promulgates the amendment, a 60-day period follows before six-day working weeks are abolished and the maximum working week falls from 44 to 42 hours, then to 40 hours after a further 14 months.