They need the vote of the people, even if they are lobbyists
In the chambers of Brazilian democracy, a quiet but insistent reckoning with the nature of work itself is taking shape. Rick Azevedo, a former pharmacy clerk turned city councilor, has carried a personal exhaustion into a national movement — one that now stands at the threshold of a congressional vote to end Brazil's 6x1 work schedule, a rhythm of labor he traces directly to the logic of slavery. The gap between the 72 percent of citizens who support the change and the 42 percent of legislators who favor it reveals an old and familiar distance between the governed and those who govern them.
- A generation of Brazilian workers — many surviving on wages that barely cover food — has found in the 6x1 debate a mirror for everything they have quietly endured.
- Business coalitions are sounding alarms about economic collapse, but the movement's leader hears in those warnings the same arguments once made against abolition, paid leave, and the minimum wage.
- Chamber President Hugo Motta has placed the measure on the 2026 legislative calendar, giving the movement institutional footing for the first time — but nearly half of federal deputies remain opposed.
- Azevedo's strategy is not persuasion but exposure: every lawmaker who votes against the measure will be named, their position publicized, their dependence on popular votes made visible.
- The proposal may land not as the ambitious 4x3 schedule its architects envision, but as a compromise 5x2 — a partial victory the movement is prepared to accept without abandoning the longer horizon.
Rick Azevedo speaks from a modest municipal office in Rio de Janeiro with the calm of someone who believes history is already moving in his direction. At 32, the founder of the Vida Além do Trabalho — Life Beyond Work — movement has traveled from viral TikTok videos made during exhausted shifts at a pharmacy to the halls of city government, and now to the edge of a national legislative fight. His target is Brazil's 6x1 work schedule: six days of labor, one day of rest, an arrangement he considers a direct inheritance of the country's slave economy.
The moment gained new weight on February 2nd, when Chamber of Deputies President Hugo Motta named the end of the 6x1 schedule a legislative priority for 2026. The movement had already collected nearly three million petition signatures, and Azevedo had been elected to Rio's city council in 2024 as the most-voted PSOL candidate despite running on the smallest budget of any winner. Public support stands at 72 percent, according to December polling — but among federal deputies, only 42 percent are in favor, with 45 percent opposed.
The business community has organized a forceful resistance, warning that the change would threaten the small and medium enterprises that account for 80 percent of formal employment. Azevedo is unmoved. He draws a recurring historical parallel: the same economic catastrophe was predicted when slavery was abolished, when the 13th-month bonus was introduced, when domestic workers gained legal protections. Each time, he argues, the economy adapted and workers gained dignity.
The legislative proposal, led in Congress by Deputy Erika Hilton, envisions a constitutional amendment establishing a 4x3 schedule with a 36-hour work week. Azevedo acknowledges this may be beyond what the current Congress will accept, and says he is open to a 5x2 compromise — but insists the movement will not stop there. His strategy for overcoming business-aligned lawmakers is blunt: public pressure, mass demonstrations, and the full publication of every legislator's vote. "They will vote by free and spontaneous will, or they will vote by free and spontaneous pressure," he says.
Azevedo also turns a critical eye toward the Lula government, arguing it has failed to speak meaningfully to platform workers — the delivery drivers and ride-share operators drawn to gig work by the illusion of freedom — and that the broader left has been slow to adapt to the organizing power of social media. He rejects any framing that pits labor rights against identity-based politics, insisting that marginalized workers carry both struggles at once.
Whether he will remain a city councilor or run for federal deputy in October is a decision he says he will make by mid-year. What is already decided, in his telling, is the moral weight of what he is fighting for. The 6x1 schedule, he says, does not merely exhaust workers — it continues a logic of extraction that Brazil has never fully named or renounced.
Rick Azevedo sits in a municipal office in Rio de Janeiro, surrounded by white plastic dividers and motivational posters, and speaks with the certainty of someone who has already won. The 32-year-old founder of the Vida Além do Trabalho movement—Life Beyond Work—believes Brazil's notorious 6x1 schedule will be voted out of existence within months. Six days of labor, one day of rest. That is the arrangement that made him viral on TikTok when he was a pharmacy clerk, exhausted and angry, and it is the arrangement he now believes Congress will dismantle in the first half of 2026.
When Hugo Motta, the Chamber of Deputies president, announced on February 2nd that ending the 6x1 schedule would be a legislative priority for the year, Azevedo's office vibrated with the news. The movement had already gathered nearly three million signatures on a petition. Azevedo himself had been elected in 2024 as the most-voted PSOL candidate for city council in Rio, despite receiving the smallest campaign budget of any winning candidate. What began as a personal complaint had become a political force.
But the path to victory is not clear. Seventy-two percent of Brazilians support ending the 6x1 schedule, according to December polling by Genial/Quaest. Among federal deputies, only 42 percent favor it, while 45 percent oppose it. The opposition has softened—it was 70 percent against the measure just seven months earlier—but it remains formidable. Business leaders and economists have mounted a coordinated resistance, arguing that the change would devastate small and medium enterprises, which account for 80 percent of formal employment in Brazil. They warn of economic collapse, of unsustainable costs, of a nation unprepared for such a radical shift.
Azevedo dismisses these arguments as theater. He draws a historical parallel that he returns to repeatedly: if economists and business owners had been consulted about abolishing slavery, they would have said the country could not survive without it. The same objections were raised against the 13th-month salary bonus, paid vacation, maternity leave, and domestic worker protections. Each time, he says, the economy adapted. Each time, workers gained dignity. "They want to cause this economic panic to continue sucking the worker dry six days a week, for just one day off, and receiving a salary that often does not even cover food," he tells the BBC in an interview conducted the day after Motta's announcement.
The proposal itself has evolved. Deputy Erika Hilton, a Black trans woman from São Paulo who is leading the effort in Congress, has framed it as a constitutional amendment that would establish a 4x3 schedule—four days of work, three days of rest—with a 36-hour work week. Azevedo acknowledges this is ambitious, perhaps too ambitious for the current Congress. He is willing to compromise on a 5x2 schedule if necessary, but he insists the movement will continue fighting for the 4x3 standard. "We will not give up there," he says. "The VAT movement will continue fighting to achieve the 4x3 in the very near future."
When asked how he plans to overcome the resistance of lawmakers who depend on business donations and lobbying pressure, Azevedo's answer is direct: exposure and public pressure. "They are lobbyists, they are slaveholders, but they need the vote of the people," he says. The movement plans to organize large demonstrations and to publicize the names and positions of every legislator who votes against the measure. "They will vote by free and spontaneous will, or they will vote by free and spontaneous pressure," he says, without irony.
Azevedo also criticizes the Lula government for what he sees as a failure to engage with the new generation of platform workers—those driving for Uber or delivering food for iFood—who have been drawn away from traditional employment by the promise of independence. He argues that the government has not presented a compelling alternative vision of work, and that the left has been slow to adapt to social media organizing, though he notes recent successes. He is careful to reject the framing that labor rights and identity-based politics are in opposition. "These 'identitarians,' as they call them, are workers," he says. "They can fight for the rights of the working class, but they also have specific agendas that are no less important."
As for his own future, Azevedo remains noncommittal. He has not decided whether to complete his term as city councilor or to run for federal deputy in October. He says he will make that decision by the end of the first semester. What is clear is that his ambitions extend beyond Rio, and that he believes the 6x1 schedule is not merely a labor issue but a moral one. "The 6x1 schedule comes directly from the slave quarters," he says. "It comes from a model of slave masters who want to continue exploiting and enslaving the Brazilian people." For Azevedo, this is not hyperbole. It is the foundation of everything he is fighting for.
Notable Quotes
They are lobbyists, they are slaveholders, but they need the vote of the people.— Rick Azevedo, on how to overcome congressional resistance
The 6x1 schedule comes directly from the slave quarters. It comes from a model of slave masters who want to continue exploiting and enslaving the Brazilian people.— Rick Azevedo, on the historical roots of the work schedule
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
You started as a pharmacy clerk making TikTok videos about being exhausted. How did that become a movement that nearly three million people signed onto?
I was just angry. I was working six days a week, one day off, and I was broke. I posted about it because I needed to say it out loud. But then other people started saying the same thing—they recognized themselves in what I was saying. That's when I realized it wasn't just me. It was millions of people living the same reality.
The business community says this will destroy small companies. They're not wrong that small and medium businesses employ most of Brazil. How do you answer that?
They said the same thing about ending slavery. They said it about the 13th-month bonus, about paid vacation, about maternity leave. Every single time, they said the country would break. And every single time, the country didn't break—it got better. The economy adapts. What doesn't adapt is the worker's ability to rest, to study, to live.
But you're willing to compromise. You started with 4x3 and 36 hours, but you'd accept 5x2 if that's what passes.
Yes, because the goal is to break the 6x1. Once we break that, we keep fighting for more. But we can't stay at 6x1. That's not negotiable. That's not a work schedule—that's exploitation.
You're planning to publicly shame lawmakers who vote against this. Isn't that a risky strategy? Won't it make them dig in harder?
They need votes. They can ignore the lobbyists, but they can't ignore the people who elected them. When we expose who is voting to keep workers enslaved, people remember that at election time. That's not shame—that's accountability.
You might run for federal deputy. Would leaving city council be abandoning the people who voted for you?
The 6x1 schedule is a federal issue. I can't solve it from the city council. But I'm still working here, still fighting. I haven't made a decision yet. I'll decide by the end of this semester.