In an era when the world is reevaluating the workweek and discussing the advantages and disadvantages of remote work, Brazilian senators wasted no time in approving, with the support of the president of the House, Rodrigo Pacheco, new rules for their own work hours.
The senators decided that they will work in person on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, when projects will be voted on, always in the afternoon, starting at 2 PM. On Mondays and Fridays, legislators do not need to attend the Senate, as there will be no deliberative sessions, and their absences will not be considered absences.
Additionally, the senators also established a month of three weeks, as in the last week of the month, work will be remote only, meaning no one needs to be present in Brasília. The goal is to give legislators more time to connect with their constituents in each state.
This means that, in practice, senators only need to attend the plenary 9 days of the month.
In a statement, the press office of the Federal Senate explained the changes:
“The (new) rule does not reduce the work hours of the Federal Senate. The Act of the Directing Committee No. 1/2023, dated February 7, 2023, revokes the Acts of the Directing Committee No. 9/2020 and 8/2021, which dealt with the semi-presential functioning of the Federal Senate due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the regulation of the functioning of remote and semi-presential sessions and meetings in the Federal Senate and the use of the Remote Deliberation System. Therefore, ATC No. 1/2023 resumes the normal work pace and allows the president of the Senate to determine the use of the SDR videoconferencing platform by parliamentarians when necessary and in special sessions or thematic debates.”
Senators’ Salaries Will Also Increase
At the end of last year, senators approved an increase in their own salaries, which will rise from R$ 39,200 monthly to R$ 41,600 monthly. The new salary will take effect from April.
Other recent changes include an increase in the parliamentary quota allocated to senators – in 2023, senators will receive an additional 6% in this resource – and an increase in housing assistance, from R$ 5,500 to up to R$ 9,000.
As a result, Brazil has the second most expensive Congress in the world; only the United States Congress – the largest economy in the world – has a higher budget. It is as if each of the 513 deputies and 81 Brazilian senators costs the equivalent of R$ 23.8 million per year. The data comes from a study by researchers from the universities of Iowa and Southern California and the University of Brasília.
Source: O Estado de São Paulo