President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva receives the union centrals this Wednesday for a meeting at Palácio do Planalto. At the meeting, Lula will receive an agenda of demands and must discuss with workers the bill to end the 6×1 scale, a model that provides for six days of work and one day off throughout the week. The text was sent to the National Congress this Tuesday.
The meeting is scheduled to take place in the afternoon with leaders from the Central Única dos Trabalhadores (CUT), Central dos Trabalhadores do Brasil (CTB) and Força Sindical. Lula is seeking support for the processing of the government’s project in the Chamber and must make an appeal to unionists about this.
The government’s project was sent to Congress with a request for urgency, which would force the Chamber to analyze the proposal within a specific period of time, under the risk of blocking the agenda.
On Tuesday, Lula discussed the topic at lunch with the president of the Chamber, Hugo Motta (Republicanos-PB). At the meeting, it was agreed that Motta, the new Minister of Institutional Relations, José Guimarães, and the government leader in the Chamber, Paulo Pimenta (PT-RS), would discuss how the issue will be dealt with in the House.
The meeting took place after a sequence of noise between the government and Congress about the submission and format of the proposal and is treated, behind the scenes, as an attempt to synchronize the Executive and Legislative branches around an agenda that has gained political traction in recent weeks.
The government’s proposal envisages a reduction in working hours without cutting wages, under the argument that productivity gains would make it possible to sustain the change. In Planalto, the issue is treated as one of the government’s main social showcases and seen as an agenda with strong popular appeal, especially in a pre-election environment.
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The Executive’s movement, however, opened a front of disagreement with the Chamber. Last week, Motta stated that the government had retreated from sending a new text, a version denied by Planalto a few hours later. The following day, Lula publicly stated again that he would send the proposal this week, which has not materialized so far.
A proposed amendment to the Constitution is being processed by the Constitution and Justice Committee, which provides for the reduction of working hours and the adoption of models such as 5×2. Motta has signaled that the eventual arrival of a project from the Executive should not interrupt the progress of the PEC, which increases the risk of overlap between initiatives.
Today, the 6×1 scale — six days of work for one day of rest — is common in sectors such as commerce and services, and its revision has started to mobilize different currents in Congress. Despite its social appeal, the proposal faces resistance from representatives of the productive sector, who point out the risk of increased costs and an impact on productivity.
