Members of the economic team of the government of the President of the Republic, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), see the end of the 6×1 scale as a ripe agenda to be approved in Congress in this first semester, driven by the electoral scenario. The concern is which text will be produced.
Depending on the format of the Proposed Amendment to the Constitution, even the Executive could jump ship, according to the report. BroadcastGrupo Estado’s real-time news system.
The idea is that the agenda already has adherence with the center-left and would be growing on the right as well, which would reduce the strength of the opposing lobby in the Legislature.
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In addition to the fact that the election year puts pressure on parliamentarians, the president of the Chamber, Hugo Motta (Republicanos-PB), would need a positive agenda to mark his administration.
The government’s argument was based on a study by the Institute for Applied Economic Research (Ipea), which assessed that the impact of reducing working hours to 40 hours a week is similar to that of recurring increases in the minimum wage and that most companies would be able to absorb the impact of the change.
The increase in the average cost of a CLT worker’s work over a 40-hour day would be 7.84% according to the Ipea study.
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In the economic team, however, there is an analysis that it will be necessary to introduce a transition period to reduce working hours, respecting greater impacts for certain sectors and companies of different sizes. Larger companies would be better able to absorb the effects of the change.
The assessment is that an agreed text would be necessary for approval to come out by the middle of the year. Otherwise, the topic will become a campaign promise. The great risk, according to sources involved with the issue, is that the text of the Proposed Amendment to the Constitution (PEC) will be a collection of exceptions and bring more insecurity than innovation for workers. In this scenario, even the government would be against the measure.
The problem is how to accommodate all these variables within the Constitution. For labor lawyer and partner at RCA Advogados, Elisa Alonso, using a PEC to make this type of change causes legal uncertainty. “Although reducing working hours is a legitimate social objective, the change via amendment, without sectoral differentiation and without adaptation mechanisms, tends to generate immediate legal uncertainty and a significant increase in costs in the short term”, he said.
She also stated that it is possible to reduce working hours through collective negotiation, sector by sector, without changing the Magna Carta. “The point is precisely this, once in the Constitution, I have to follow it. If I create differences or transition in the Constitution, I lose the logic of the Constitution, which is supposed to be a rigid norm, a norm without these specific nuances to be followed”, he commented.
Productivity
Another point raised within the government is that the private sector is overestimating the financial impacts, when, in fact, there could be gains in productivity.
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The National Confederation of Industry, for example, estimated the impact on the sector at R$178 billion with a reduction to 36 hours per week, as stated in the original PEC on the topic, authored by congresswoman Érica Hilton (PSOL-SP).
In agribusiness, a preliminary analysis carried out by entities in the productive sector and presented to the Parliamentary Agricultural Front (FPA) points to a risk of 20% to 25% of a gap in vacancies if the new scale is adopted.
Government officials also cite a possible positive externality for the economy, taking pressure off the Unified Health System (SUS) and the National Social Security Institute (INSS).
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The current level of unemployment, the lowest in the historical series, would be another boost for the project in the Executive’s view.
