THE INVISIBLE WORKFORCE: DOMESTIC WORKERS AND LABOR RIGHTS IN BRAZIL

This dissertation examines the exclusion of domestic workers from labor rights in Brazil in both the past and present. Despite recent reforms, domestic workers continue to lack the same rights as other workers, and the prevalence of informal work presents challenges for labor law. This study employs a mixed-methods approach, including bibliographic and legislative history research mapping, analysis of the legislative process, and interviews. The organization of domestic workers has been crucial in advocating for expanded rights and played a critical role in the approval of the International Labor Organization’s Convention on Domestic Workers and Brazil’s Constitutional Amendment on Domestic Workers (Amendment No. 72/2013). The study shows that the Brazilian government and domestic workers used international influence and discussion to prioritize a national reform and postpone the ratification of the International Labor Organization’s Convention on Domestic Workers. Despite not being ratified in the country during the congressional debates regarding domestic workers’ labor rights, the convention was significant within Brazil and played a part in the approval of the constitutional amendment mentioned above. This dissertation sheds light on the undervaluing of care work and the gendered division of labor, as well as the social discrimination and racism that surrounds paid domestic work which drives younger individuals away from the occupation. While the recent legal reforms represent progress, there is still work to be done to ensure that domestic workers are accorded the same rights as other workers and that the burdens of care work are more equitably shared among different genders and entities.