The President of the Republic, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), signed a decree this Monday, 13th, reducing the working hours of over 40 thousand outsourced public management employees. These workers will now have 40-hour working weeks instead of the current 44 hours, in a model similar to what the federal government wants to implement with the end of the 6×1 working day.
This 40-hour week regime will be applied to all outsourced workers, except those who work on a rota basis (12h x 36h or 24h x 72h, for example). Around 19 thousand outsourced workers had already benefited from this reduction in working hours in 2024 and 2025, according to the Presidency’s Secretariat for Social Communication (Secom).
The measure signed by Lula deals with the reduction of weekly hours, but not the number of rest days. This reduction, however, is at the center of the debate on proposals to reduce working hours, with the end of the 6×1 scale and the establishment of a 5×2 journey.
In a speech, the president said that the work done by outsourced workers is as “dignifying and important” as his work in charge of the country’s Executive. Lula said that the government is providing benefits to the sector, but that this is happening at “slow steps”.
“I always think that, often, we don’t want to see the people who are doing the work that we think only people who don’t have the same professional qualifications can do. What we’re doing here is taking steps, even slower than I imagined,” said Lula.
The Minister of the General Secretariat of the Presidency, Guilherme Boulos, stated that, with the measure, Lula is showing a “home example” amid the debate over the end of the 6×1 scale. He also reaffirmed that the government is fighting for a reduction from 44 to 40 hours per week for all Brazilians without a salary reduction.
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“What President Lula is showing today is that the example begins at home. We advocate that all Brazilian workers work a maximum of 40 hours a week, that they have at least two days of rest a week”, said Boulos.
