A sweeping labor reform proposal backed by 176 congressional lawmakers from Brazil's Centrão and far-right factions would transform what began as a worker-friendly initiative into legislation expanding the work week to 52 hours and delaying reforms for a decade.
The amendment, spearheaded by Deputy Sérgio Turra (PP-RS), garnered five more signatures than the 171 required to formally present the proposal in the Chamber of Deputies. The signatories include some of Brazil's most prominent far-right lawmakers: Nikolas Ferreira, Ricardo Salles, Bia Kicis, Marco Feliciano, and Rosangela Moro.
The amendment fundamentally alters PEC 221/2019, which originally sought to gradually reduce the work week to 36 hours. Instead, the Centrão version lowers that target to 40 hours—a seemingly technical change that adds four hours of mandatory weekly work compared to the original proposal.
In Brazil, as across Latin America's giant, continental scale creates both opportunity and governance challenges. The Centrão—a loose coalition of centrist and right-leaning parties that controls crucial swing votes—has historically extracted concessions from presidents of all ideological stripes in exchange for legislative support. This latest maneuver exemplifies how popular policy proposals can be captured and transformed through Brazil's fragmented congressional politics.
The most controversial provision creates a constitutional pathway for individual or collective agreements to expand working hours by 30% beyond the constitutional limit. With the amendment setting a 40-hour baseline, this clause would legalize 52-hour work weeks through negotiation—potentially undermining decades of labor protections.
"This represents a permanent constitutionalization of labor flexibilization," warned labor law experts quoted by ICL Notícias.
