Year-end temporary hiring in Brazil: what Lei 6.019 requires of HR

Asserttem, the Brazilian Temporary Work Association (Associação Brasileira do Trabalho Temporário), projects about 530,000 temporary contracts in Brazil between October and December 2026, up 1.5% from the 522,000 in the same period of 2025, according to an estimate released on October 7. Industry is expected to account for 45% of this hiring, followed by services (35%) and commerce (20%), and the average rate at which temporary workers are hired permanently is 20%, according to the association. For HR and payroll teams, the peak is also a compliance test: temporary work has its own legal grounds, time limits and rights, and some mistakes create an employment relationship with the client company.

This guide follows Lei nº 6.019/1974, Brazil's temporary work and outsourcing law, as amended by Lei nº 13.429/2017, and Decreto nº 10.854/2021, the decree that now regulates it and that revoked Decreto nº 10.060/2019.

When the law allows temporary work

A temporary worker is hired by a temporary staffing agency (empresa de trabalho temporário, or ETT), which places them at the disposal of a client company, called the tomadora in Brazil (Lei 6.019, art. 2º), in only two situations:

• Temporary replacement of permanent staff: covering an employee away because the employment contract is suspended or interrupted, such as vacations, leaves and other absences provided by law (Decreto 10.854, art. 43, V).
• Complementary demand for services: demand that comes from unforeseeable factors or, if foreseeable, is intermittent, periodic or seasonal (Lei 6.019, art. 2º, § 2º). This is where year-end reinforcement usually fits.

Continuous or permanent demand and demand from opening new branches do not count as complementary (Decreto 10.854, art. 43, sole paragraph). And temporary workers may not replace workers on strike, except in cases provided by law (Lei 6.019, art. 2º, § 1º).

A warning for private security: Lei 6.019 does not apply to security guard and cash-in-transit companies (art. 19-B), whose labor relations follow special legislation and, secondarily, the CLT, Brazil's Consolidated Labor Laws. Check with your legal team.

Who hires and what the contracts must include

The temporary worker is an employee of the ETT, not of the client company (art. 10). The ETT must be registered with the Ministry of Labor (art. 4º) and have minimum share capital of R$100,000 (art. 6º). Under Portaria MTP nº 671/2021, a Labor Ministry ordinance, a contract with an unregistered ETT is null and void (art. 138), and recruiting and selecting temporary workers is the ETT's exclusive role (art. 139). There are two written contracts:

Contract	Parties	What it must include
Placement of temporary workers	ETT and client company	Identification of the parties, reason for the demand, term, price and provisions on worker safety and health (Lei 6.019, art. 9º)
Temporary employment contract	ETT and worker	The temporary worker's rights and the name of the client company (Decreto 10.854, art. 65)

The reason must describe the fact that justified the hiring (Decreto 10.854, art. 71, § 2º). And the ETT must give the client company, on request, proof that it is in good standing with Social Security, the Previdência Social (Lei 6.019, art. 14).

Time limits: 180 days, one extension and a 90-day gap

Rule	What the law says
Maximum term	180 days, consecutive or not (Lei 6.019, art. 10, § 1º)
Extension	Once, for up to 90 days, if the conditions that justified the hiring are shown to persist (art. 10, § 2º, and Decreto 10.854, art. 66)
Return to the same client	A worker who completed that period can only be placed there again 90 days after the previous contract ends; before that, an employment relationship with the client arises (art. 10, §§ 5º and 6º)
Probationary contract	The CLT probationary contract does not apply to a temporary worker hired by the client company (art. 10, § 4º)

Since the law ties the 90-day gap to workers who complete the statutory period, check with your legal team how to handle shorter contracts.

Temporary workers' rights and the client company's duties

The ETT pays the temporary worker (Decreto 10.854, art. 48), and the client company directs the work (art. 58). Under the law (art. 12) and the decree (arts. 60 to 63), the worker is entitled to:

• pay equivalent to that of the client company's employees in the same category, calculated by the hour, with the minimum wage guaranteed;
• up to 8 working hours a day, or more if the client company uses a specific schedule, with overtime paid at a premium of at least 50%;
• a night-work premium of at least 20% and paid weekly rest;
• proportional vacation pay of 1/12 of the last salary per month worked, upon dismissal without cause, resignation or the normal end of the contract;
• FGTS (Brazil's mandatory severance savings fund), Social Security benefits and occupational accident insurance;
• a note of their temporary status in the Carteira de Trabalho, Brazil's employment record.

The client company must ensure safety, hygiene and healthy conditions when the work is done on its premises or at a place it designates, extend to temporary workers the medical, outpatient and meal services it offers its own employees, and report any accident to the ETT (Lei 6.019, art. 9º, §§ 1º and 2º, and art. 12, § 2º). It is subsidiarily liable for labor obligations for the period and, if the ETT goes bankrupt, jointly liable for the amounts due for that period (art. 10, § 7º, and Decreto 10.854, art. 74).

Temporary work, outsourcing or a fixed-term contract?

The decree distinguishes temporary work from outsourcing (art. 42) and from the CLT fixed-term contract (art. 70), whose rules are in Lei 6.019 (arts. 4º-A and 5º-B) and in the CLT (arts. 443, 445 and 451):

	Temporary work	Outsourcing	Fixed-term contract (CLT)
Employer	Registered ETT	Service provider	The company itself
Who directs the work	The client company	The service provider	The company itself
When it applies	Temporary replacement or complementary demand	Any of the client's activities, including its core business	Transitory services or activities and probationary contracts
Term	180 days, plus up to 90	As set in the contract, if any	Up to 2 years, with at most one extension

Another difference: in temporary work, equivalent pay is mandatory; in outsourcing, the law leaves pay equivalence up to the companies (art. 4º-C, § 1º).

Onboarding: PPE, training, time tracking and documents

Onboarding must be ready before day one:

• PPE and uniforms: based on the safety and health clauses of the contract with the ETT, define who supplies each item and record every delivery.
• Training: record the content, date and attendance of each onboarding session.
• Time tracking: Portaria 671 allows a temporary worker's hours to be recorded on the client company's REP-C (the physical time clock), with the clock-ins identified and counted in the employer's time records (art. 76, §§ 3º and 4º). See our Portaria 671 guide.
• Documents: the ETT reports the contracts through eSocial, the government's digital system for payroll and labor reporting (Portaria 671, art. 137), and labor inspectors may require the client company to show its contract with the ETT (Lei 6.019, art. 15).

With time tracking compliant with Portaria 671, schedules, PPE, training and documents with e-signatures legally valid under ICP-Brasil (Brazil's public key infrastructure) in one system, as in TIRVU+, HR can follow each new hire from day one.

Permanent hiring without liabilities

About 500,000 temporary workers were hired permanently in 2025, according to Asserttem. Any clause barring the client company from hiring the worker at the end of the period is null (art. 11, sole paragraph), and the probationary contract does not apply to a temporary worker hired by the client (art. 10, § 4º). Set hiring criteria from day one and record each evaluation.

End of the 6x1 schedule: watch December rosters

Constitutional Amendment 141 (Emenda Constitucional nº 141), promulgated and published on October 16, 2026, caps working hours at 40 a week and provides for two paid weekly rest days, with no pay cut, which affects the 6x1 schedule of six workdays for one day off. Two months after publication, in December, the 42-hour limit and the two rest days take effect, and incompatible collective agreement clauses lose effect (arts. 3º, 6º and 10).

The amendment does not mention temporary work. Build December rosters for permanent teams under the new limits, and agree with the ETT and your legal team on how to handle temporary workers, including hourly rates. See the timeline in Amendment 141 and the end of the 6x1 schedule.

Common mistakes that create liabilities

• Hiring through an unregistered ETT or justifying the demand in generic terms.
• Using temporary workers for continuous demand, new branches or strikes.
• Exceeding the time limits or placing the worker again before 90 days.
• Paying less per hour than the client company's employees in the same category.
• Failing to record PPE, training and working hours.

What to do now

• Match each opening to one of the two legal grounds, with the fact described
• Confirm the ETT's registration and Social Security standing
• Review the contract with the ETT, including safety and health
• Look up the hourly rate of employees in the same category
• Prepare PPE, training and time tracking before day one
• Track the start, extension and end of each contract
• Build December rosters under the Amendment 141 limits

Frequently asked questions

How long can a temporary contract last?

Up to 180 days, consecutive or not, extendable once for up to 90 days if the conditions behind the hiring persist. A worker who completes that period can only return to the same client company 90 days after the contract ends; before that, an employment relationship with the client arises.

Can the client company hire the temporary worker permanently?

Yes. The law voids clauses that bar the client company from hiring the worker and rules out the CLT probationary contract in that case. According to Asserttem, the average rate of permanent hiring is 20%.

Can a temporary worker clock in on the client company's time clock?

Yes. Portaria 671 allows their hours to be recorded on the client company's REP-C, and the time-processing software must identify the worker and count the clock-ins in the time records of the ETT, the employer.

Conclusion

Year-end concentrates hiring and risk, and the first stage of Amendment 141 arrives in December: contracts, onboarding and rosters need to move together. For the safety side, see our guide to PPE control in outsourcing.

Want to welcome your year-end temporary workers with time tracking, schedules, PPE and documents organized from day one? Talk to the Tirvu team and see TIRVU+ working in your own operation.

Sources

• Planalto: Lei nº 6.019/1974, consolidated text
• Planalto: Decreto nº 10.854/2021, temporary work chapter
• Ministry of Labor: Portaria MTP nº 671/2021, consolidated text (July 2026)
• Planalto: Constitutional Amendment 141 (Oct 16, 2026)
• Agência O Globo, via Tribuna do Sertão: Asserttem's year-end projection (Oct 7, 2026)
• Mirian Gasparin: 530,000 temporary jobs at year-end (Oct 8, 2026)

This content is for informational purposes only and does not replace specialized legal advice.