Constitutional Amendment 141/2026: the deadlines for adapting working hours

Congress has already handed companies an early “Christmas voucher,” and it comes with plenty of work and a mad rush. If manager Michael Scott, from the series The Office, were in your HR department, he would already be shouting “Conference Room, five minutes!” to define roles, responsibilities and deadlines.

Speaking of deadlines, here they are. PEC 221 (the proposed constitutional amendment) gave way to Constitutional Amendment 141, published in the Federal Official Gazette on October 16, 2026. Unlike court deadlines, these do not pause: they run in calendar days, including weekends and holidays.

Phase 1: December 16, 2026 (two-month deadline)

• The maximum working week falls from 44 to 42 hours.
• Granting two days of paid weekly rest becomes mandatory, preferably on Sundays, unless otherwise negotiated.
• Clauses in current collective agreements that are incompatible with the new rule lose all validity.

Phase 2: December 16, 2027 (14-month deadline)

• The final transition takes place and the maximum working week is set at 40 hours.

The most critical detail is that Phase 1 takes effect precisely in the second half of December, at the operational peak of retail, services and logistics. The window to renegotiate shift schedules and avoid leaving operations understaffed over Christmas is very short.

The starting gun has been fired, and neither HR nor labor relations teams can say they were not warned. With this rush, HR's year-end rotation schedule will probably be compromised. On the other hand, no one will need to work 8 hours 48 minutes or 9 hours a day to make up the week anymore. And if they do, the extra hour will count as overtime.

Originally published in Portuguese on Diego Amâncio Dias's LinkedIn.