Brazil's Congress passes revised weekly working hours to 40 hours, expected to boost President Lula's election chances

The Brazilian Senate passed a constitutional amendment on the 14th to reduce the legal working hours from 44 hours per week to 40 hours and maintain existing wages, which is expected to benefit more than 37 million workers. The election of current President Lula, who is striving to be reversed in the second round of the presidential election on the 25th, is also expected to benefit.

The bill to reduce working hours has a huge public support and was passed by the Senate in two rounds of voting with 75 votes in favor and 1 vote against.

Lula praised in a statement, "Today is a day to celebrate the historical achievements of millions of workers." "This means more time to live, rest, enjoy family, accompany children to grow, take care of themselves and enjoy life. These hard-working pillars of the country deserve more time in life."

In the first round of presidential election voting on the 4th, former President Bolsonaro’s son, right-wing Senator Flavio. Bolsonaro broke mainstream poll predictions and topped the first-round vote with 47%, beating Lula's 45.1%. Facing the possibility of losing the runoff election, Lula, who has the advantage of being in power, has made frequent moves recently, including new fuel tax cuts, extending subsidies, promising to forgive more than 3.6 million small business debts, and promoting social welfare programs for university students, in an attempt to overturn a 2.2 million vote disadvantage.