Brazil Senate approves Bill to shorten work week in election boost for Lula

BRASILIA – Brazil’s Senate approved legislation to shorten the work week without reducing pay, handing President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva a potential lifeline days ahead of an election he’s trailing.The Senate voted 75-1 in favour of the Bill on Oct 14 in two rounds of votes, granting final passage to a proposal that will end the so-called “6x1” work schedule under which some 16 million Brazilians work six days a week with one day off.A former trade unionist, Lula has put the proposal, which will give workers subject to the 6x1 schedule an extra day off, at the centre of his efforts to mount a comeback from a first-round upset that turned right-wing Senator Flávio Bolsonaro into the frontrunner ahead of Brazil’s Oct 25 runoff.The leftist leader earlier in 2026 made the reduction in weekly working hours – to 40 from 44 – the flagship promise of his campaign.Since finishing behind Bolsonaro in the Oct 4 first round vote, he’s challenged the senator to back the proposal in social media videos and staged rallies in Sao Paulo and Brasilia where many attendees called for passage of the plan.Bolsonaro, who previously opposed the Bill and sought to delay the vote until after the election, reversed course on Oct 13, saying he’d vote for the legislation because most workers support it.Investors and prediction markets consider Bolsonaro the favourite, and no candidate who trailed in the first round has won a runoff since Brazil returned to democracy in 1989. Polls, however, suggest Lula is still within striking distance.Bolsonaro would take 51 per cent of valid votes, excluding blank and null ballots, to Lula’s 49 per cent in the runoff, according to a Quaest survey released on Oct 14.Bolsonaro outperformed Quaest’s final poll of the first round by about 2 points, while Lula underperformed by 1. Lula hailed the Senate vote, saying the policy is “more than just a change in working hours.”“It means more time to live, rest, be with family, watch one’s children grow up, take care of oneself, and enjoy life,” he said in a social media post. “This is a victory for workers.”The question facing Lula is whether broad popular support for the measure will translate into an electoral boost. Many of his major policies, including new tax exemptions for workers, debt renegotiation initiatives and a programme to provide basic medicines at no cost, are overwhelmingly popular. But the 80-year-old president has struggled to turn that into votes, and segments of his working class base have moved rightward amid labour market shifts, crushing household debt levels and the rising cost of living.Bolsonaro has continued advocating for an alternative proposal that he argues would provide greater flexibility in labour rules by letting employees negotiate hours with businesses, calling it a better solution than Lula’s. Business groups have opposed the work week change, arguing it will increase costs while reducing productivity.Lula’s government also unveiled a debt relief proposal for so-called microentrepreneurs on Oct 13, targeting voters who typically lean conservative. BLOOMBERG