The acting President of the Republic, Geraldo Alckmin, resorted this Monday (20), to greater productivity through the adoption of technologies by companies to justify the reduction in the work schedule – which today is mostly made up of 6 days of work and one of rest -, the project of which was sent for consideration in Congress by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
According to Alckmin, reducing working hours is a global trend because technology allows more to be done with fewer employees and also requires more qualified labor.
The acting president made this observation after visiting Unipar, a chemical company located in Cubatão (SP), which underwent a modernization process, completed in December 2025.
“There is a tendency around the world to reduce working hours because technology allows you to do more with fewer people. It changes the profile, you have more qualified human resources, it’s a trend. With more technology, there is greater production with fewer people. This applies to agriculture, where you mechanize a lot, it applies to industry, with automation, robots, and even for services, such as medicine”, he said.
For him, it is natural for there to be a reduction in working hours, but this needs to be debated and discussed. “The government supports it and there is a need to analyze the specificities because not everyone has the same logic. So it is up to Congress to analyze and deepen this debate. But we are in favor. This is a global trend”, he emphasized.
