O espaço doméstico como categoria de exceção reprodutora da subalternidade no direito do trabalho

Abstract

The present research has as its object the relationship between domestic space and subalternity in Labor Law. Official statistical data and qualitative research on paid domestic work in Brazil reveal that the category is marked by racial and gender inequality, coloniality in relationships and a high level of informality. In addition, the data also indicate the existence of systematic violations of labor rights, which became even more evident during the Covid-19 pandemic. This context allows us to affirm that, in paid domestic work, legal and labor protection is the exception to the rule of informality, because even after the recent legal inclusion by Constitutional Amendment n. 72 and by Complementary Law n. 150 of 2015, the category of domestic workers still faces difficulties in gaining access to the rights they have conquered. Considering that this relationship occurs within the domestic space and that this peculiarity is commonly invoked to justify the discrimination in the regulation of domestic work, this research intends to answer how the domestic space acts as an exception category and reproduces subalternity in Labor Law. The term subalternity is characterized from decolonial feminism and the texts of Gayatri Spivak. As for space, the concepts formulated by Milton Santos and Doreen Massey are adopted as a theoretical framework. The general objective of the research is to understand how the domestic space acts as a category of exception and reproduces subalternity in Labor Law. To this end, it is necessary to fulfill the following specific objectives: i) demarcate the main legal challenges of paid domestic work based on statistical data and qualitative research on the subject; ii) review the concept of space for Labor Law and criticize it from a decolonial feminist perspective; iii) describe the domestic space through official statistical data, qualitative data and other sources that demonstrate the relationship between law and space; and iv) analyze the legal constitution of the domestic space as a category of exception. The hypothesis drawn is that the domestic space is constituted to be a space of absence of labor rights and reproduces the subalternity in the Labor Law, because they maintain the colonial/capitalist gender oppression. In methodological terms, the research is characterized as theoretical and bibliographical and uses secondary data. Decolonial feminist methods, such as the situated perspective, are also employed.