The guarantee of freedom of association and collective bargaining rights to domestic workers: two opposite models, Brazil and Canada

Abstract

The study’s main objective is to question the exclusion of domestic workers from freedom of association and collective bargaining rights and to propose possible policy solutions to allow the rights to these workers. The paper focuses in the Canadian and in the Brazilian cases. Even though the Brazilian and Canadian models illustrate two very different approaches towards collective organization, both countries present regulatory challenges to the effective recognition of domestic workers’ freedom of association and collective bargaining rights. The policy solutions to these challenges in the case of domestic work can serve other groups of vulnerable workers, such as migrants, low wage service workers, informal workers. The methodology is developed through bibliographical and documentary analysis.