End of 6×1 will impact industry by R$267 billion, says Firjan

Firjan (Federation of Industries of the State of Rio de Janeiro) has warned of the possible economic impacts resulting from the end of the 6×1 scale. According to the entity, the approval of PEC (Constitutional Amendment Proposal) 221, which provides for the reduction of working hours without salary reduction, could generate an estimated impact of R$267 billion on the industry.

Maria Rita Catone Barbosa, labor legal manager at Firjan, explained that the federation's position is not contrary to the debate on the modernization of labor relations.

"We are not against this modernization of work and any type of improvement in the quality of life of workers and society itself, but we cannot close our eyes to the economic impacts", he stated.

Impact on prices and small businesses
According to Maria Rita, the effects of the measure would go beyond the industrial sector, directly reaching the consumer's pocket. The Firjan representative estimated an average increase of 5% to 6% in the prices of products and services, including eating out.

"Automatically, everything we consume will become more expensive. There's no way it won't have this impact," he declared. She also highlighted that micro and small companies, as they are the ones that employ the most formally in Brazil, would be the most affected by the change.

The legal manager highlighted that the current maximum legal working hours is 44 hours per week, but that studies already indicate an effective average of 39 hours per week, both in industry and in other sectors.

For her, this demonstrates that flexibility already occurs in practice, through collective negotiations. "In practice, we already have this happening through collective negotiation," he said, arguing that this mechanism be preserved to respect the specificities of each sector and region.

PEC 12 as an alternative to PEC 221
When asked about PEC 12, presented as an alternative and supported by Firjan, the CNI (National Confederation of Industry) and other entities, Maria Rita stated that the proposal is more aligned with the federation's position as it values collective bargaining and flexible working hours. "PEC 12 ended up being more in line with our positioning", he said.

However, she considered that even this alternative proposal requires a more in-depth debate between the government, workers and employers.

The Firjan representative also highlighted the coherence of PEC 12 with the labor reform approved in 2017, which already provides for what can and cannot be subject to collective bargaining.

"The journey can indeed be negotiated, and not only can it, it has been negotiated for years. We even have scales 12×36, 24×72, 4×4, which come from collective negotiation", concluded Maria Rita, reinforcing that a change of such magnitude requires careful technical analysis and a structured dialogue between all parties involved.

Study: end of the 6×1 scale can reduce GDP, income, jobs and companies

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Source: CNN