The President of the Republic, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), and the President of the Chamber, Hugo Motta (Republicanos-PB), must meet by Monday, 25th, to close the open points in the proposed amendment to the Constitution that reduces the working day and ends the 6×1 scale.
People familiar with the negotiations indicate that the result of the meeting should be passed on to the PEC rapporteur, deputy Leo Prates (Republicanos-BA), who already has the basis of his opinion ready, all that remains is to define mainly whether there will be a transition and, if there is, how the scheduling will be.
As a result, the report would be read by the special commission that analyzes the merits of the PEC on Monday. The expectation is that it will be voted on in the collegiate body by Thursday, the 28th, and in the plenary on the same day.
The text of the PEC must be lean and basically deal with the reduction of the working day from 44 hours to 40 hours per week, without a reduction in salary and with two days off.
In a seminar held on Thursday, 21, in Belo Horizonte, Prates denied any discussion about a transition to two days off.
“This is the government’s commitment, it is President Hugo Motta’s commitment. The idea is that the two days off come into force in 2026, so there is no transition to the two days off, there has never been this discussion, including among us. We never established this debate”, said the parliamentarian.
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According to him, the opinion will also not include individual agreements. “We want a PEC that is as lean as possible, referring to laws, to unions, both employers and employees, which are important to strengthen the collective agreement”, he stated.
One of the open points is how long the two days off would be implemented.
At a lunch at the Parliamentary Front for Commerce and Services, Prates stated that he intended to give around 120 days for the ordinary laws that regulate 14 specific categories to be updated, a period that would also serve to cover categories that sought to create their own ordinary law, instead of stipulating the change in a collective agreement.
This period would start counting from the promulgation of the PEC and could also be used for the two days off to come into force.
Regarding the transition, there is an understanding among parliamentarians that a period of up to 3 years could be necessary to completely reduce the working day from 44 hours per week to 40 hours per week.
One proposal would be to apply a one-hour reduction after the promulgation of the PEC, leaving two hours for the next year and, the last, for the following one. A government wing even defended a reduction of one hour per year – which would give a transition of four years, but started to defend a shorter schedule.
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The ministers of Labor, Luiz Marinho, and the General Secretariat of the Presidency, Guilherme Boulos, resist the application of a transition and defend the immediate reduction of working hours.
At lunch at the parliamentary front, the rapporteur said he was concerned about the attempt to brand Congress as “the enemy of the people”. “Congress does the work to preserve the country, the government reaps the laurels – which is fair, merit. It was the government who raised the flag. But we secure the economy, which provides the government’s revenue. Then I can’t be the enemy of the people”, he said.
