LatinNews Daily - 16 October 2026

*Brazil’s national confederation of municipalities (CNM), which represents the interests of mayors and local governments, has warned that the recently approved constitutional amendment proposal (PEC) to shorten the working week could harm the finances of municipal authorities. On 14 October the federal senate approved the PEC to reduce the maximum working week from 44 to 40 hours, which the CNM estimates could have a fiscal impact of R$6.6bn (US$1.3bn) per year. According to the CNM’s figures, local governments would have to spend an additional R$5.14bn per year on outsourcing services to contractors and R$1.49bn on direct hires. A CNM statement published yesterday cites the confederation’s president, Paulo Ziulkoski, as saying that companies that provide services to municipalities would need to “expand hiring and pass on these costs” in order to maintain the same level of service, adding that “municipalities are already facing budgets at their limits and do not have resources to cover the costs”.