The first big victory for the pharmacy clerk who launched the movement to end the 6x1 scale with an outburst on TikTok

Video in which Rick Azevedo denounced the exhaustion of the 6x1 scale left TikTok and became a national political agenda
BBC
"When are we, the working class, going to make a revolution in this country related to the 6x1 scale? Guys, it's modern slavery. Not modern. Outdated."
When he published this outburst on his social networks, the then store clerk Rick Azevedo had no idea that it would be the launch of a new national discussion on reducing working hours in the country.
This Wednesday (27/5), the Chamber of Deputies approved, by 461 votes in favor and just 19 against, the project that reduces the weekly working day from 44 to 40 hours and replaces the 6x1 model with five days of work and two days of paid rest.
In the video published on TikTok in September 2023, Azevedo, who worked in a pharmacy in Rio, showed himself indignant at the lack of time for leisure, family and studies due to the 44-hour working week, with only one week off.
"I, who don't have a child, who have nothing, who am alone... I can't do things. Imagine who has a child, who has a husband, who has a house to take care of", he said to the camera.
"A person has to donate to the company six days a week and only have one day off. That's to earn minimum wage. Guys, it's not possible."
The video went viral. With interest growing due to the outburst, the young man born in Dianópolis, Tocantins, began making more publications about the topic on social media.
A petition for changes to the scale exceeded 3 million signatures. Later, together with other workers, he founded the Movimento Vida Além do Trabalho (VAT).
A year after the publication of the outburst, at the age of 30, Azevedo was elected as the most voted councilor of the PSOL in Rio de Janeiro, with more than 29 thousand votes.
"When I started back there, as a pharmacy clerk who just wanted to vent, in the first moments, I thought that I really wouldn't progress to the point where we would get here", he said in an interview with BBC News Brasil in February this year.
40 hours a week, two days off, up to 14 months of transition: what is the text like that ends the 6x1 scale
From the internet to the plenary
The agenda quickly caught the attention of left-wing parties and social movements, which had already been trying to update the traditional union discourse with the discussion around the labor rights of delivery drivers and app drivers.
In Brasília, the agenda gained traction when Erika Hilton decided transform it into a legislative proposal. In November 2024, the PSOL-SP federal deputy took on the political articulation of the issue and presented a Proposal for Amendment to the Constitution (PEC) inspired by the demands of the VAT movement.
The initial text was more ambitious than the proposal approved now: it provided for a 36-hour week, without salary reduction, making room for a four-day working model.
In a few weeks, the proposal surpassed the minimum number of signatures needed to be processed - including support from centrist and from the right. "This is not an ideological discussion, but a country one", stated the deputy at the time.
Councilman Rick Azevedo and deputy Erika Hilton, main coordinator of the proposal in the Chamber
PSOL Disclosure
With great popular appeal, the proposal was strongly opposed by the business community, especially in commerce and services.
The sector argues that the proposal could be harmful to the country's economy without previous investments in education and increasing the productivity of the Brazilian economy, in addition to increasing labor costs and requiring more hiring.
In November 2024, for example, the CEO of the Brazilian Association of Pharmacy and Drugstore Chains (Abrafarma) told BBC News Brasil that Erika Hilton's proposal in Congress had caught the business community by surprise.
Executive Sérgio Mena said that the proposal it had a "populist" character and would make business in the sector unviable.

"It's a very serious problem for retail and I don't know how to close this account."
The National Confederation of Industry (CNI) calculates a loss of R$76 billion in Brazilian GDP (-0.7%) with the reduction of working hours from the current 44 to 40 hours. In the case of industry, GDP would fall by 1.2%.
The National Confederation of Commerce in Goods, Services and Tourism (CNC), which brings together businesspeople in these sectors, states that reducing working hours would increase costs on the payroll by 21%.
The CNC estimate says that the price pass-through to the consumer could reach 13%. The CNI points to price increases of 6.2%, on average.
Rick Azevedo says that the business community wants to "cause panic".
"If I were telling you here now, 'we are going to end slavery in the country', today's economists would say the same thing: that the country does not have the structure to end slavery, that the country would go bankrupt", he said in the interview with BBC News Brasil.
"The 13th [salary], the same thing. Paid holidays, the same thing. Maternity leave too. Rights for domestic workers? break'."
Now in g1
Lula government: from caution to electoral campaign
Despite the popularity of the agenda, the Lula government initially avoided taking a leading role. Rick Azevedo even publicly criticized the lack of more emphatic support from Planalto and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), arguing that the government was "wasting time" by not leading the discussion. in the government's speech it took place in 2025. On May 1st of that year, the PT member signaled political support for the agenda for the first time.
"We are going to deepen the debate on reducing the working day in force in the country, in which workers spend six days at work and have only one day of rest", he said in a statement on TV.
"It is time for Brazil to take this step."
Lula signaled political support for the proposal on Labor Day, in May 2025
Ricardo Stuckert/PR
In April of this year, Lula sent a bill with the proposal to the National Congress. The government started to defend a more moderate version of the project: weekly working hours reduced from 44 to 40 hours, guarantee of two days of rest (5x2 model), prohibition of salary reduction and gradual transition to companies.
The agenda, in fact, became a central element of Lula's pre-campaign to recover ground in the voting intention polls - his main opponent in the electoral contest, the pre-candidate and senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL), even surpassed him in some polls.
Currently, the estimated voting intention for President Lula is 40% in the first round, against 33% for Flávio Bolsonaro, according to the BBC News Brasil Research Aggregator. See the complete estimates here.
Lula says that the end of the 6x1 scale is a 'civilizing achievement', thanks Motta and promises to work for approval in the Federal Senate
The proposal to end the 6x1 scale became Lula's electoral banner
Ricardo Stuckert/PR
In May, the PT's management reinforced the campaign. Under the slogan "more time to live. Without losing salary. Because time is not a benefit. It is a right", the federal government launched an advertising campaign on television, radio, newspapers, digital platforms and even in the international press.
The British newspaper Financial Times published that "former trade unionist Lula" was seeking to "reconnect with his worker base" with the proposal.
The proposal faced resistance in Congress. The opposition promised to obstruct the proposal and even defended a ten-year transition for change, presenting an amendment to the PEC.

The proposal was signed by 176 deputies, mainly from PL, MDB, PP, PSD, Republicans and União Brasil.
However, the PL bench made a shift in its strategy on the eve of the vote, amid the strong electoral appeal of the proposal.
"This law, once enacted, has to come into effect immediately. Why delay two months to start slowly? This is hypocrisy towards the worker", said the leader of the PL, deputy Sóstesnes Cavalcante (PL-RJ) 6x1.
Now the PEC will be evaluated by the Senate, where it is not clear whether it will advance with the same ease. The president of the House, Davi Alcolumbre (União-AP), did not express a commitment to approving the change, as Motta did.
For a proposed amendment to the Constitution to come into force, it must be approved with identical text in both houses. Any change in the Senate, therefore, would return the proposal to the Chamber.
The government is betting on the popular appeal of the proposal to put pressure on senators - two thirds of the Senate seats will be up for grabs in October.
With reporting by Mariana Schreiber
READ ALSO: End of the 6x1 scale would put Brazil 'in line with much of the Western world', says the world's most influential financial newspaper

Source: G1

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