Brasilia - With government support, the Constitution and Justice Committee (CCJ) of the Chamber of Deputies approved on Wednesday, April 22nd, the proposed constitutional amendment (PEC) that ends the 6x1 work schedule. However, the business sector is already preparing to fight a battle in the special committee that will be created to debate the issue. The intention is to postpone the vote until after the elections, according to NeoFeed .
The strategy devised by business entities and confederations aligned with centrist and right-wing deputies is to buy time and delay the vote in committees as much as possible before the proposal goes to the plenary session.
If it passes in the Chamber of Deputies - the Speaker of the House, Hugo Motta (Republicanos-PB), intends to vote on it in the first half of the year - the next step will be in the Senate, where President Davi Alcolumbre (União-AP) has already signaled in a recent meeting with business sectors that the vote could be postponed until after the October elections.
After the Constitution and Justice Committee (CCJ), which only assessed the constitutionality of the proposed amendment, a special committee must be formed to debate its merits. If approved, the text goes to the plenary of the Chamber of Deputies. Following that, the proposal needs to be voted on in the Senate.
In the CCJ session on Wednesday, the 22nd, rapporteur Paulo Azi (União-BA) considered the day "historic" and said he hoped that the government and workers would reach a consensus and produce modern and balanced legislation.
The task for the business sectors is arduous, but the "PEC security operation," according to a source closely following the negotiations, seeks to prevent parliamentarians opposed to the PEC from having to vote on the proposal in plenary or accept the burden of rejecting it at a time when the issue has great popular appeal.
The business sector argues that if the current schedule (six days worked and one day off) is eliminated without any transition period, it will lead to increased costs for employers, a possible increase in informality, and a need for increased hiring in some cases.
The sector also defends the system of hours worked and, in part, compensation such as payroll tax relief (however, some sectors have not been supporting the idea, as well as the government's economic team, which fears an undesirable fiscal impact on the National Treasury).
Recently, 175 employers' associations (CNI, CNA, Fiesp, Abimaq, CNT, CNC, etc.) signed a manifesto advocating for more time to debate the issue on technical grounds.
"It is considered advisable that this agenda be explored in depth outside the context of electoral disputes, at a time more conducive to building lasting consensus and balanced solutions, preventing pressured decisions from compromising the quality of public policies and their effects on the country," the statement said.
Virtually alone in the vote on the PEC in the CCJ today, Representative Lucas Redecker (PSD-RS) argued that with the end of the 6x1 work schedule, it will be necessary to hire more people in various business sectors, "but that doesn't mean the employer will have the money to hire more people." He defended the special committee as the forum for debating forms of compensation and transition for the end of this work schedule.
“My concern is: who will foot the bill? Because if we reduce working hours without reducing pay, which is very good for the worker, it will create a deficit for companies, and that will also be passed on to the consumer,” said Redecker, who requested a review in the CCJ last week to postpone the vote.
"There's a rush, an urgency to get this project approved as quickly as possible, but we have to create alternatives to maintain jobs," he added.
The government and its base, however, have been working to accelerate the processing of the issue in Congress. In addition to the proposed constitutional amendments (PECs) already under consideration in the Chamber of Deputies – besides the one already approved, authored by Deputy Reginaldo Lopes (PT-MG), there is also another one by Deputy Erika Hilton (PSOL-SP) – the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) sent a bill to the National Congress on April 15th.
The text proposes a new 5x2 work schedule (five days on, two days off per week) without salary reduction and a decrease in the weekly working hours from 44 to 40. The government's proposal is subject to constitutional requirements: it has 45 days to be approved in the Chamber of Deputies and the same period to pass in the Senate, otherwise it will block the voting agenda.
Minister Guilherme Boulos (General Secretariat) told the newspaper Valor Econômico on Wednesday, the 22nd, that the government is working with the expectation of approving the matter in the Chamber of Deputies by the end of July. He advocates, for example, a 90-day transition period for the implementation of the end of the current scale, while business entities are talking about at least five years.
“Now the maneuvering is over,” said Representative Sâmia Bonfim (PSOL-SP) today, who voted in the CCJ today and is one of the main parliamentarians defending the PEC to end the 6x1 work schedule.
“If the right wing tries to stall again, the bill submitted under urgent procedure by the Lula government last week will have to be voted on next month anyway. In other words, there’s no way around it: we will approve the end of the 6x1 work schedule.”
The government's proposal is already facing resistance from the business sector. In a statement, the National Union of Trade and Services Sectors (Unecs), which represents one of the sectors most affected by the end of the 6x1 work schedule, said it viewed the text with "concern," as well as other similar proposals that are being debated in the legislature.
"Although such proposals are presented under the guise of valuing workers and extending rest time, it must be recognized that, as they are being outlined, they suffer from significant legal flaws and potential adverse economic effects of a systemic nature," the organization states.
Finally, it is warned that measures without adequate technical and legal support can generate counterproductive effects, compromising both the business environment and social protection itself. The country's development requires legally sound and economically viable solutions,” the note adds.
