Business leaders see "overstepping" in the 6x1 work schedule amendment and already admit defeat in the Chamber of Deputies.

Brasilia - The Proposed Amendment to the Constitution (PEC) that ends the so-called 6x1 work schedule is reaching its decisive moment. And the business community is predicting a "rush" in the voting process.

Initially mostly opposed to abolishing the current scale, the business sector has already tallied around 400 votes in favor of the proposed constitutional amendment in the Chamber of Deputies.

And he acknowledges, behind the scenes, that he will be "run over" by the strategy of the House Speaker, Hugo Motta (Republicanos-PB), who orchestrated an accelerated pace in the processing of the PEC in the committee, a source admits.

The rapporteur, Deputy Léo Prates (Republicanos-BA), will present his opinion to the special committee on Wednesday, May 20th. The vote in the special committee, which will analyze Prates' report, is scheduled for next week, on May 27th, as Motta reinforced after running a marathon through the streets of Brasília on Sunday, May 17th.

To give an idea of the companies' sentiment, in an email sent to the chairman of the committee — Congressman Alencar Santana (PT-SP) — which NeoFeed had access to, the president of the Federation of Industries of the State of São Paulo (Fiesp), Paulo Skaff, refused to attend a public hearing of the committee with employers' associations on Monday, May 18, scheduled for 4 pm, in the Chamber of Deputies.

Skaff thanked them for the invitation, but gave the following reason for not attending: "I will not be attending because FIESP does not agree with the haste with which the issue is being handled in the Legislature."

The president of the São Paulo federation continues to say that it was outrageous that the hearing was scheduled for a Monday, "preventing the presence of many deputies." The quorum of federal deputies on Mondays is usually low – most of them tend to arrive in the capital starting on Tuesday mornings.

When contacted, Fiesp responded to NeoFeed , through its communications office, that it "has expressed itself as completely in favor of debating this or any other topic, but not in the spirit of an election campaign."

Despite his previously announced absence, Skaff has been participating in discussions surrounding the issue. In March, he met in Brasília with congressional leaders, including government officials, to detail the specificities of the work schedule in the industrial sector.

In April, he was with the Minister of Labor, Luiz Marinho, at a dinner at Fiesp itself. And last Wednesday, May 13th, he had lunch with the rapporteur of the PEC (Proposed Constitutional Amendment).

In the meetings, Skaff reiterated that the debate should take place after the elections, preferably from 2027 onwards, in line with the position of employers' associations and parliamentary fronts representing the business sector.

Federations, associations, and business unions had adopted a strategy of political coordination, along with parliamentarians, to try to postpone the vote. However, government pressure and popular appeal, especially in an election year, weighed heavily in allowing the PEC (Proposed Constitutional Amendment) to move forward more quickly.

The special commission was established in the last week of April and has already held several public hearings, including with ministers Dário Durigan (Finance) and Guilherme Boulos (General Secretariat). It has also been holding seminars outside of Brasília. The first was in João Pessoa (PB), Hugo Motta's electoral stronghold. Meetings have also taken place in São Paulo, Porto Alegre (RS), and São Luís (MA), and are scheduled for this week in Belo Horizonte (MG), Florianópolis (SC), and Manaus (AM).

Report

According to sources familiar with the negotiations, the rapporteur is expected to propose reducing the work week from the current 44 hours to 40 hours, establishing a new schedule of up to five days worked and two days off (5x2), without a reduction in wages. However, the specific details of the work schedule for each sector are expected to be left to a separate bill.

The strategy, led by Motta, was to focus on one of the proposed constitutional amendments (PECs) currently being processed in the Chamber of Deputies, rather than using the bill that the government submitted to the National Congress in recent weeks. The content of the PEC report, however, is in line with the Executive branch's position.

According to Congressman Luiz Gastão (PSD-CE), who is on the board of the Parliamentary Front for Entrepreneurship (FPE) and participated in meetings on the subject in the Chamber of Deputies, the rapporteur of the proposed constitutional amendment will produce a report that is as concise as possible. And the trend is that the bill will regulate all the constitutional changes that come with the proposed amendment. "I have been advocating that we discuss working hours, not shift schedules," said Gastão.

Congressman Júlio Lopes (PP-RJ), president of the Parliamentary Front for a Competitive Brazil, believes that the PEC (Proposed Constitutional Amendment) will only fail to pass in the Chamber of Deputies as quickly as expected if some unforeseen event leads to a postponement of the vote. He emphasizes that the Front advocates for a "modulation" (transition) in the timeframe for the new labor legislation to come into effect.

NeoFeed has learned that rapporteur Léo Prates is currently inclined to maintain a transition period of up to 10 years to allow different sectors of the economy to adapt to the new work schedule and scale.

“There may be some problems in the voting process itself that could delay it, but today there is a great deal of pressure to vote, including a multi-million dollar campaign by the government,” Lopes told NeoFeed .

"Today it's hard to believe it will be postponed. I think the Senate will be in a better position to evaluate it with more peace of mind and less pressure," he added.