Lula presses Senate to end 6x1 schedule as rival plan sparks labor dispute

Lula presses Senate to end 6x1 schedule as rival plan sparks labor dispute
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has said Senate President Davi Alcolumbre has scheduled a vote for Wednesday, May 14, on a constitutional amendment that would replace Brazil’s 6x1 work pattern — six working days followed by one day off — with a 40-hour week and two paid days of rest.

Speaking at a rally on São Paulo’s Avenida Paulista, Lula presented the proposal as a clear choice over working conditions. The amendment would reduce the statutory weekly limit from 44 hours to 40 without cutting pay. “The only thing I can do is show that he does not have the courage to vote against the population,” Lula said, referring to Senator Flávio Bolsonaro and arguing that the Liberal Party must say whether it supports workers or longer work schedules.

The contrast is centered on a separate amendment introduced by Senator Rogério Marinho of the Liberal Party, a coordinator of Bolsonaro’s campaign. That proposal would establish an alternative system of payment by hours worked; Bolsonaro was among 40 senators who signed it, although he was not its author. Critics of the alternative argue that it could make employment more precarious by enabling intermittent schedules without paid rest days.

Lula’s camp is also linking the labor debate to a broader Senate push on public policy. The president said a separate public-security constitutional amendment was due for another vote in the Senate’s Constitution and Justice Committee on the same day. He argued that defining the responsibilities of federal, state and municipal governments would strengthen protection for communities, saying the goal was to “free communities from the domain of crime.”

Both initiatives are being presented by the government as protections for everyday life: one focused on time off and pay, the other on public safety. But the work-schedule vote exposes the sharper political divide, over whether flexibility in labor rules expands opportunity or weakens established safeguards.

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