Original news and official publication: 16 October 2026. Reviewed 19 October 2026.
Constitutional Amendment 141 establishes a phased reduction in Brazil’s weekly working-time ceiling, without salary cuts. The first stage is 42 hours two months after publication. The 40-hour ceiling follows one year after that first stage, making the transition fourteen months in total. Two paid weekly rest days begin after the same initial two-month period.
The change covers existing contracts. Schedules already at or below 40 hours do not receive a proportional hours reduction. Collective agreements may provide permitted rest-day averaging; this is not an unconditional, identical five-day roster for every operation.
Applicability also requires attention to the amendment’s specific treatment of qualifying highly paid degree-holders and employees deployed under existing public-administration contracts. Do not apply the headline rule to those groups without examining Articles 8 and 9. Article 8’s working-time and time-recording exception does not remove the weekly-rest protections. Incompatible collective working-time and rest clauses cease to have effect after two months.
Prepare before changing the payroll configuration
Ewaider recommends mapping affected contracts, rosters, collective agreements and exceptions, then modelling staffing coverage, overtime and payroll parameters for each phase. Assign legal, HR and payroll owners to agree the applicable implementation dates and retain the basis for their decisions. These are preparation recommendations, not a claim that employers must move immediately to a 40-hour week.
Use the enacted text’s two-month period, rather than replacing it with a shorthand reference to 60 days.
Official sources
EC 141, Articles 1–10; DOU 16 October 2026, extra edition
Senate confirmation of promulgation and fourteen-month transition, 16 October