Proposal limits common working hours to 144 hours per month; text goes to the Senate
The Chamber of Deputies approved, this Wednesday (April 29, 2026), a bill that limits the working hours of military police officers and military firefighters to 144 hours per month. The proposal will be sent to the Senate.
Authored by federal deputy Sergeant Portugal (Podemos-RJ) and , bill 5967/23 was approved in the form of substitute of the rapporteur, Colonel Meira (PL-PE).
The text sets the normal working day at 144 hours per month, except for ordinary service shifts with a workload of 24 hours per shift. In these cases, the monthly limit of hours will be 192 hours due to the nature of the activities and nature of the service.
When the ordinary service routine worked exceeds 144 hours per month, the excess must be added to the time bank as overtime credit. If additional work occurs on Sundays and holidays, the bank’s hours count will be doubled.
Colonel Meira stated that the proposal corrects historical distortions in the organization of the working day of police officers and military firefighters. “The gap in federal legislation has allowed the consolidation of schedules that, not infrequently, exceed reasonable limits of physical and mental resistance”, he said, mentioning that these journeys often affect those who work directly on the streets.
According to Meira, the full availability required by the nature of the activities carried out by police officers and firefighters cannot be confused with permanent exhaustion, mainly because chronic fatigue affects response capacity and weakens society’s protection. “Strong public security presupposes professionals who are respected, protected and subject to decent working conditions,” he declared.
Meira stated that no corporation becomes stronger by “grinding” its own members. For him, the text prevents exceptionality from becoming the rule and recognizes the excess of working hours in the time bank. “Whoever protects society also needs to be protected by the State,” he said.
The project amends decree-law 667/69, which reorganized careers at the time. Currently, the article of the decree-law in which the changes are made refers the discipline of these professionals’ rights to specific laws of the States and the Federal District.
Additional shifts
The approved text conditions the call of police officers and military firefighters to carry out additional and extraordinary shifts on a compulsory basis in specific and temporary cases. They are:
- state of siege;
- state of defense;
- state of war;
- state of public calamity;
- federal intervention.
Debate in Plenary
During the debate in Plenary, deputy Sergeant Gonçalves (PL-RN) stated that the proposal “frees police officers and military firefighters from slavery”. Gonçalves is one of the authors of the proposal.
Deputy Sergeant Fahur (PL-PR) said that he never received overtime when he needed to go beyond the shift due to a longer incident. “Enough of exploiting the police and military firefighters. Enough of slavery for the public security professional. Today we break this chain”, declared the deputy, who is also the author of the project.
For deputy Helder Salomão (PT-ES), however, the proposal can be questioned about its constitutionality. “The competence to legislate for police officers and military firefighters belongs to the state government”, he declared, highlighting that he was in favor of the text.
This text was originally published by , on April 29, 2026. The content is free for republication, the source is cited, and was adapted to the Poder360 standard.
