Adrielle Barbosa de Aquino is 27 years old and has two children. Currently, she works as a waitress from Monday to Saturday, in a restaurant in the city center of Rio de Janeiro.
Since leaving her teens and starting her first job almost ten years ago, Adrielle hasn't known what it's like to have two days off in a week.
"On this 6x1 scale, I only have Sunday off, right? It's the day I have to solve my things. One day to solve a thousand things and we get lost. Even more so when we are a mother. It's heavy!"
She adds that, when she needs to take care of other things that are not possible on a Sunday, such as a simple medical appointment for her children, she ends up having to miss work: “we end up missing a day of work and our salary is deducted”.
Exhausting journey
Adrielle is one of the millions of Brazilians who work an exhausting six-day work week.
She, like many, sees the approval of the Proposed Amendment to the Constitution (PEC) 221/2019, this Wednesday (14) by the Federal Senate, as a possibility of gaining more free time: whether to rest, enjoy family, have fun, study, solve problems, have better monitoring of your health or even to earn extra money.
A survey carried out in February this year by Nexus shows that 73% of Brazilians support the end of the 6x1 scale.
Yasmin Nascimento works as an administrative assistant in a clinic, also on a 6x1 scale. In the rush of a Thursday morning, she spoke to Agência Brasil, while her motorcycle taxi was already waiting to take her to another day of work.
As she prepared to get on the back of the motorcycle, Yasmin said she hopes that people can make better use of their free time with other activities
"It's another day off with your family, another day that we can use to work, study. Ultimately, the day off is up to the person, they know what they're going to do on their day off, but I was very happy because this PEC was approved."
Cristiane Wandermuren, 56, has also worked since she was a teenager with just one day off a week. Previously as a general service assistant and currently as a kitchen assistant.
"If I had one more day, I would take care of my health, enjoy my grandchildren more. Today I have little time for my family", he laments.
"We only have Sunday. How can I go to the doctor on Sunday? We usually go to the doctor in the middle of the week... Then the boss gets angry if you arrive later."
6x1 in the past
Simone Cunha de Oliveira spent 15 years working in the 6x1 scale. Some time ago, however, he started working at a school, where he manages to have two days off a week.
"The quality of life is much better, you have two days to rest, you can solve your problems. Just one day to do everything you want or need, you can't afford it", he says.
She can't wait for her sister, who works as a car saleswoman and still hasn't managed to get rid of the 6x1 scale, to be able to take off twice a week.
"I can only see her on Sunday. I hope that the change in the law mainly improves people's health. People are getting sick from working so hard. May they get the rest they deserve."
Maria Antônia de Carvalho, 63 years old, had to retire to be able to have more than one day of rest per week.
"I worked at 6x1 my whole life. It was horrible not having time for anything. I didn't have time for anything. I really couldn't. When you thought you were going to rest, the next day you were working again. Now it's wonderful, because I have more time for myself, for my family."
At 65 years old, Luciana Machado has also worked six days a week for almost her entire life. Only recently, already retired, she started working on a 5x2 scale, but, according to her, she needed to work extra every day, to make up for the Saturday off.
"With this new scale, I'm afraid that the person will have to increase their working hours during the week, as happened to me. It could also be that the employee will lose money by working one less day", he says.
When does it come into effect?
According to the text approved yesterday by senators, Lucian does not need to worry about an increase in working hours, as companies will have to guarantee a 5x2 scale, as well as a reduction in working hours from 44 to 42 hours per week, 60 days after the promulgation of the constitutional amendment.
Therefore, if the PEC is enacted in October, the rules would come into force in December 2026.
After this first reduction, the working day will have to drop to 40 hours, 12 months later. Thus, the complete transition will take 14 months.
The exception is outsourced public administration workers, who will have a different transition rule.
See the PEC transition rules that end the 6x1 scale:
shift of 5 days of work with 2 days of rest (after 60 days);
reduction of working hours from 44 hours to 42 hours per week (after 60 days)
working day from 42 hours to 40 hours a week, maintained on a 5x2 scale (in 14 months).
How will working hours be calculated?
In the interval between the second and 14th months after enactment, the employer must distribute, throughout the week, the two hours above the normal eight hours of work. If divided equally, the employee will have to work 8 hours and 24 minutes five days a week.
Once the transition phase is complete, all employees must work a maximum of eight hours a day and 40 hours a week, 5 days a week. To work more hours, only pay overtime.
The proposal provides that a subsequent complementary law may establish transitional measures to mitigate the impacts of reduced working hours for individual microentrepreneurs (MEIs), microenterprises and small businesses.
