By Indianara Goz
Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF), the country's highest court, is set to decide how much room there will be to bend the end of the so-called 6x1 work schedule. On Tuesday (Nov. 10), at a conciliation hearing in Brasília, Justice Flávio Dino said the working week can be adjusted through collective bargaining, as long as workers keep two days of paid rest.
From 6x1 to 4x3: it all depends on the agreement
The 6x1 schedule means six days of work followed by one day off. The hearing dealt with how to apply Constitutional Amendment No. 141/2026, which, according to Dino, ended that schedule. The justice said the parties reached a consensus that the weekly and monthly limits on working time can be made more flexible.
Dino was direct. "There is an agreement here regarding non-exhaustiveness. I will issue a decision specifying what was said here by both parties: that the monthly or weekly limiter can be flexed through collective bargaining. This is necessary because the amendment induces rigidity," he said.
In practice, the calculation moves from the week to the month. A worker could do 6x1 one week and 4x3 (four days of work, three days off) the next, as long as the monthly average is two rest days per week. All of this would depend on a collective agreement or convention between workers and employers.
What the labor union federations want
Representatives of Brazil's labor union federations argued that negotiations should take into account the particularities of each sector. According to them, companies that opened a dialogue with workers have already found ways to adapt schedules.
They also asked the STF to recognize the validity of agreements already signed, in order to give legal certainty to negotiations. They stressed that adjustments cannot lead to the loss of other rights, such as the 15- or 30-minute breaks provided for certain work shifts. The agreements, they said, may be renegotiated in the future if new adjustments become necessary.
Ruling still pending
Dino said he will present his decision in the coming days to spell out the understanding reached at the meeting. Until then, what stands is the justice's own reading of what both sides said. The hearing addressed the application of the new rules, and the issue now depends on the Supreme Court's definition.
Why it matters
Ending the 6x1 schedule has been presented in Brazil as a major gain for workers. Now the schedule that voters and workers believed was closed could be negotiated again, this time with the STF as final arbiter. For businesses, the details of the ruling will determine how much room they have to organize shifts. For workers, they will determine which protections remain intact.
VDD Analysis
When a constitutional amendment is sold as the end of a work schedule and, a few months later, the Supreme Court itself opens space for combinations that recreate it in parts, readers have every right to be skeptical. Freedom to negotiate between company and worker is a value the right defends, but it needs clear rules, not a court decision that has yet to be written. Until the text is published, the uncertainty falls on those who work and those who run businesses.
