Brazil & Southern Cone - March 2026

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva knows a thing or two about elections – this year will be his seventh presidential campaign and he has won three.  His approach is straightforward, to choose a few simple messages that will resonate widely. This year one of his main battle cries going into the October presidential race will be to reduce working hours.

The proposal he has endorsed as one of his major campaign promises is to reduce the maximum work week permitted by law from 44 hours to 40 hours, a practice some sectors have already adopted. “It’s not fair that workers only have one day off a week,” Lula said last December. “The most valuable thing a human being has is time, time outside of work, time to rest, take care of the family and watch the children grow up.”

Movements to reduce the work week have come in waves, first to 48 hours in the 1930s, then to 44 hours through the 1988 constitution. The latest drive to chip off another four hours began around 2010, with several proposals still lingering in congress. But the issue only regained momentum when social media influencer Ricardo Azevedo posted a series of videos venting about his workload at a pharmacy in Rio de Janeiro. He founded the Movimento Vida Além do Trabalho (VAT), a movement that aimed to improve working conditions and increase leisure time.

Azevedo was elected to the Rio city council for the left-wing Partido Socialismo e Libertade (PSOL) in October 2024. Federal deputy Erika Hilton, also of PSOL, submitted a constitutional amendment proposal (PEC) in 2025 to reduce the work week to 36 hours, triggering further media attention, union activity, and marches, and ultimately the attention of Lula.

But what looked to be a political slam dunk that would easily win overwhelming support, turned out to be more complicated. Business leaders started to warn that working less would drive up labour costs and make Brazil’s economy less competitive. There is not just one single formula governing maximum working hours that is appropriate for all sectors. While much of the work force already works around 40 hours, almost one third works more than 44 hours. That is true mostly in the retail and services sectors, such as supermarkets, bars, and restaurants.

Industry concerns

The Confederação Nacional do Comércio (CNC), the national retail lobby, argued that a reduction of the work week ought to be gradual and negotiated between workers and employers. If the agreement were to work five instead of six days, then that reduction ought to be deducted proportionately from an employee’s salary, said Fabio Bentes, chief economist at the CNC.

The head of the business lobby Confederação Nacional da Indústria (CNI), Ricardo Alban, cited statistics from the International Labour Organization (ILO) showing that Brazil ranked 90^th out of 180 countries in terms of labour productivity. In addition, it remained unclear how businesses would hire more workers to offset the labour reform if unemployment was already at record lows in many industries. “This dynamic causes the loss of production, labour and income and, consequently, the Brazilian GDP,” said Alban. A CNI study published on 23 February also showed that working four hours less per week could increase payroll costs by around 7%.

Different legislation

In addition to Hilton’s constitutional amendment proposal (PEC), there are other PECs under review in congress that propose gradually reducing the work week from 44 hours to 36 hours, including proposals that were submitted in 2015 and 2019 by lawmakers from Lula’s left-wing Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT). Yet the government would likely prefer an ordinary bill instead of a constitutional amendment because it is faster to get through congress and requires fewer votes. Also, a PEC does not require Lula’s signature to be promulgated, thereby depriving him of a key photo opportunity. In an election year such details matter.