Brazilian Senate approves shorter workweek, giving Lula a victory ahead of runoff

The Brazilian Senate approved a constitutional amendment on Wednesday to reduce the country’s maximum workweek from 44 to 40 hours without a salary reduction, a measure backed by President Lula da Silva, who hopes it will boost his standing against Flávio Bolsonaro in the second round of the presidential election on October 25.

Lula is expected to sign the workweek reduction into law next week, after the upper house passed the measure in two rounds of voting with the exact same result: 75 to 1 out of 81 members. The sole vote against came from former Vice President Hamilton Mourão, who served under President Jair Bolsonaro.