Brazil's Congress promulgates the amendment ending the six-day working week

16 October 2026

The Brazilian Congress has promulgated the constitutional amendment that ends the six-day working week with one day off, known in Brazil as the 6x1 schedule, and brings in a five-day week with two days off, the 5x2. The new rule takes effect within two months. The amendment was promulgated at a formal session attended by Senate President Davi Alcolumbre, Chamber of Deputies President Hugo Motta and President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, with ministers, senators and federal deputies of the governing coalition filling the Senate chamber; opposition leaders stayed away. Alcolumbre said the measure's impact was incalculable and that the legislature had chosen the right path rather than the easy one. Motta said ending the 6x1 schedule touched millions of Brazilians who wake before dawn and travel across whole cities to work. Lula compared the arguments against the change with those once made against Brazil's legally mandated thirteenth-month payment in the early 1960s.