Fearing losing votes after criticizing the PEC (Proposed Amendment to the Constitution) that ends with , he defined a strategy to try to wear down the president (PT): he will defend in the plenary the 4×3 scale, with four days of work for three days off, and of 44 to 40 hours a week without transition.
Voting will be by roll call. As it is a PEC, the government’s allied base, with the left-wing and centrão parties, will have to give 308 votes in favor of the transition – a measure that was the majority of the PT until last week. If there are not enough votes, the transition will fail and the reduction in working hours will be immediate after promulgation.
The opinion of deputy Leo Prates (-BA), the result of an agreement between Lula and the president of the Chamber of Deputies, (Republicanos-PB), establishes a transition until 2027. Until then, the PT member publicly defended the immediate reduction of working hours, while the deputies wanted a longer implementation period.
The opinion determines that the reduction in working hours from 44 to 42 hours per week and the two paid weekly days off, one preferably on Sundays, will come into effect 60 days after the promulgation of the PEC. Twelve months after this first reduction, there will be another cut, to 40 hours per week.
The opposition will make a request in plenary to remove this article from the transition, he told Sheet the PL leader in the Chamber, Sóstenes Cavalcante (RJ). First, he will ask in another request that the original PEC by congresswoman Erika Hilton (PSOL-SP) be voted on first, which guaranteed three days of paid time off, the 4×3 journey.
“The PT will have to explain to workers why it is against the immediate reduction in working hours”, says Cavalcante.
For the PL leader, bringing its entry into force forward will mean that the effects on inflation will already be felt when voters go to the polls in October, which would mitigate the political gain. Lula’s strategy of only applying it in mid-September, closer to the election, would aim to reduce the negative impact on the economy and leave only the positive aspects.
The position in favor of the PEC came after months of criticism from Bolsonaro supporters about its content, saying that the measure will increase costs for companies, which will be passed on to the population, and the “electoral” nature of the measure. The party’s pre-candidate for President, the senator (RJ) defended the right to more rest time for workers, but proposed an alternative: .
The plan replicates the one attempted by the opposition when the government proposed up to R$5,000. At the time, the PL suggested an amendment to increase it to R$10,000, to force Lula’s allies to oppose a greater benefit. The request was never put to a vote. In the case of the PEC, voting is mandatory.
The PL decided at a meeting on Tuesday (26) that it will vote in favor of the PEC, despite internal differences. According to four parliamentarians from the party, there was great pressure from voters against two amendments from the ruralist group that proposed a ten-year transition and that some professions were excluded from the reduction in working hours.
The opposition leader in the Senate, Rogério Marinho (PL-RN), participated in the meeting with deputies to defend that the party . For him, the change will increase informality in Brazil, the prices of services and products and will drive companies and jobs away from Brazil due to lower competitiveness.
The speech provoked divergences at the meeting, with deputies fearful that the position against the PEC would be misinterpreted. More than 30 deputies were heard and the minority agreed to vote against the PEC. The majority preferred the strategy of defending a more radical proposal and, in doing so, trying to give Lula the expense of defending fewer rights.
A PL parliamentarian told Sheet who understands Marinho’s position, but that the senator will not run for re-election now and that only 30% of voters would understand this speech. The party, said this deputy, cannot run the risk of displeasing such a large number of voters in favor of the PEC – which has the support of 68% of the population.
The strategy did not change the government’s position. Representative Erika Hilton (PSOL-SP), author of one of the two PECs, stated that she will continue to defend the scale of four days worked for three days off (4×3). “But not in a hasty way as they are doing, not to hinder and harm the achievement that Brazilians will have today,” he said.
For deputy Rubens Pereira Júnior (PT-MA), the opposition’s speech will not have support. “It’s an innocuous political maneuver. The working class, who knows it’s demagoguery, doesn’t win and loses a piece of their real base, the liberals and entrepreneurs”, he says.
The government is counting on Motta to defeat the opposition’s demands in the vote. The president of the Chamber began to share the spotlight on the issue with Lula, according to the PT members, and that is why he will work with the center so as not to be defeated on the points he defended, such as the transition to dilute the impact on companies.
