Brazil moves toward five-day workweek

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BRASÍLIA — Brazil's Chamber of Deputies advanced a reform on Wednesday that would shorten the workweek and give workers two days of rest, a pre-election victory for leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Latin America's biggest economy currently has workers hustling six days a week.

Backed by labour unions and opposed by trade organisations, the draft constitutional reform now heads to a vote in the Senate to reduce the workweek from 44 to 40 hours, without pay cuts.

"The people will work five days and be able to rest for two," Lula said Tuesday at an event in the northern state of Amazonas.

If approved by Congress, it would be the first reduction on Brazil's workweek since the Constitution was enacted in 1988.

Unions and left-wing advocates have pushed for the change to improve the quality of life and mental health for workers in Brazil, where unemployment is at record lows.

The six-day schedule "is inhuman, it robs people of hope and dignity," said lawmaker and reform sponsor Erika Hilton ahead of the proposal's advancement.

Figures cited in the proposal say it will change the workweek for more than 35 million Brazilians, in a country of 213 million people.

Business leaders oppose the change, warning it could harm their bottom lines and result in job losses.

Lula, a former union leader, is seeking his fourth non-consecutive term in office. His main rival is Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, the son of far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro, who was jailed for an attempted coup.

Across Latin America, a 40-hour workweek has been enshrined in law in Chile, Ecuador, Venezuela and, more recently, Mexico.