Brazil Votes To Change Occurrence of Mid-Week Public Holidays

Sources: Comissões de Educação e Cultura and Brazil public holidays. Late last week, the Education and Culture Commission of Brazil's Chamber of Deputies, approved a bill (Projeto de Lei 7609/06) aimed at reducing the occurrence of extended holidays, by moving most of Brazil's public holidays to the preceding Monday, if they occur on a Tuesday, or to the next Friday if they fall on a Wednesday or Thursday.

The law would exclude from this mechanism, public holidays that are deemed unmovable: January 1, September 7, December 25, Good Friday and Corpus Christi, leaving the public holidays that are based on the following dates to be governed by this law: April 21, May 1, October 12, November 2, and November 15.

Analysis: Note that a similar bill (Projeto de Lei 659/07) had been tabled in early January 2007, which would move all public holidays that fall in mid-week to the previous Monday. But this bill was rejected by the commission in favour of the earlier bill, which is similar to the mechanism used by many South American countries to move their mid-week public holidays.