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Abras proposes hourly hiring as an alternative to the 5×2 shift in supermarkets, and president João Galassi requested a meeting with minister Luiz Marinho to discuss PEC 40/2025, which allows workers to choose between the traditional CLT regime or an hourly work schedule, a flexibility that the sector considers essential to keep small networks viable.
Brazilian supermarkets have entered the debate about ending the 6×1 shift with a proposal that could change how millions of workers in the sector are hired. Abras advocates that, in addition to the traditional monthly salary model provided by the CLT, supermarkets should be able to offer hourly hiring, a modality that would give employees the choice between a fixed schedule or a flexible regime and which, according to the sector, would balance the transition to the 5×2 shift without making the operation of small networks, which operate with reduced teams, unviable. “We want a second option in addition to what we have today. Besides the monthly salary model, we want the hourly worker model,” states João Galassi in an interview given during the Smart Market Abras event.
Supermarkets’ concern about the impact of the shift change is not rhetorical. Galassi points out that implementing the 5×2 shift without flexible alternatives “breaks the small businesses that have no more than three or four employees per section,” a diagnosis that reveals the dilemma between ensuring more rest for workers and keeping viable the smaller establishments that form the base of the Brazilian supermarket sector. Abras’s proposal does not seek to prevent the end of the 6×1 shift, but to create a parallel mechanism that allows supermarkets to absorb the impact without fully passing it on to consumers or to the staff.
What is the PEC for hourly workers that supermarkets support
The proposal that Abras advocates already formally exists in the National Congress. PEC 40/2025, authored by Congressman Mauricio Marcon (Podemos-RS), amends Article 7 of the Federal Constitution to allow workers to choose between the traditional CLT model with a fixed monthly work schedule or a regime based on hours worked, a flexibility that would give employees autonomy to define how much and when to work within contractual limits. For supermarkets, this modality would solve the problem of shift coverage that the 5×2 shift creates by requiring more employees to cover the two weekly days off.
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The hourly hiring model is already common practice in countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. In these markets, retail and food service workers often work on an hourly basis with remuneration proportional to the time actually worked, and this flexibility allows students, retirees, and people with other commitments to make up the supermarket workforce during peak hours without a full-time employment bond. The adaptation of this model to the Brazilian reality, however, requires care to ensure that flexibility does not turn into precariousness, a point that unions and the Public Ministry of Labor closely monitor.
Why supermarkets consider the 5×2 shift problematic without alternatives
The supermarket sector operates with characteristics that make the transition to the 5×2 shift more complex than in other branches. Supermarkets operate every day of the week, including holidays, and each section requires constant coverage that the 6×1 shift guaranteed with one rotating day off, while the 5×2 shift requires two days of rest that need to be covered by additional employees or by reorganization that is not always viable in stores with lean teams. For a large chain with hundreds of employees, absorbing the change is a matter of planning; for a neighborhood mini-market with half a dozen employees, it can be a matter of survival.
The proposal to reduce the weekly workload from 44 to 40 hours exacerbates the problem from the supermarkets’ perspective. “We do not agree to reduce the number of hours from 44 to 40 because it doesn’t add up, especially for small businesses,” states Galassi, a calculation that reflects the reality of establishments where every hour of work is essential to keep operations running and where a four-hour weekly reduction per employee would necessitate additional hires that revenue cannot support. The solution proposed by supermarkets, hourly hiring, would allow covering uncovered shifts with workers who only operate during peak hours, without the fixed cost of a full-time employee.
What hourly hiring would change for supermarket workers
For the employee, the choice between a monthly-paid and hourly-paid model would represent a gain in autonomy if it is voluntary. Workers who prefer a fixed schedule with a predictable salary would remain under the traditional CLT regime with all labor guarantees, while those who desire flexibility to balance work in supermarkets with study, another job, or personal activities could opt for the hourly regime with proportional remuneration. The coexistence of the two models is what Galassi considers ideal: “If we maintain the 44 hours in the 5×2 model, with the addition of the hourly worker PEC, we will close this matter with high satisfaction.”
The risk that workers and unions foresee is that the option for the hourly regime might be imposed instead of offered. If supermarkets start preferentially hiring by the hour to reduce costs, employees who would prefer a fixed schedule might find themselves with no alternative but to accept the flexible model with variable remuneration and less financial predictability. The Public Ministry of Labor is monitoring the discussion precisely to ensure that any implementation preserves the voluntariness of the choice and does not result in a massive replacement of monthly contracts with hourly ties that only benefit supermarkets.
How the proposal is progressing and what it needs to become reality
The supermarkets’ proposal still has a long way to go until eventual implementation. PEC 40/2025 needs to advance in the National Congress, where it will face debate between proponents of flexibilization and critics who see the hourly model as a risk of precarious labor relations, a discussion involving trade unions, employer representatives, and the federal government on a topic that affects millions of food retail workers. Galassi’s request for a meeting with Minister Luiz Marinho signals that supermarkets want to negotiate before legislation is defined without the sector’s participation.
The outcome will depend on alignment between the government, companies, and worker representatives. Supermarkets argue that hourly hiring is a necessary modernization that other countries have already adopted, unions warn that flexibility can mask a reduction of rights, and the government needs to find a balance that allows the transition from the 6×1 to the 5×2 schedule without destroying jobs or making small supermarkets unviable, which sustain the supply of neighborhoods and smaller cities. The final solution will likely not fully please any side, but if it preserves jobs, ensures rest, and keeps supermarkets functioning, it will have fulfilled the essential.
And you, do you think hourly hiring in supermarkets is a good idea or does it pave the way for precariousness? Leave your opinion in the comments.
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