Guest speaker Dr. Natalie Sedacca of Durham University will present the fifth chapter of her book project at the faculty seminar on January 22, 2025, at the Ground Floor Conference Hall at NLSIU’s Training Centre.

Abstract

A central construction in the devaluation of domestic work is the presentation of paid domestic workers as akin to members of their employer’s family, which is highly gendered and masks deeply unequal relationships, overlapping with marginalisation based on factors like race / ethnicity, caste, migration status and class. This devaluation is manifested through legal frameworks excluding domestic workers from protections applicable to other sectors, including on minimum wages. This chapter examines devaluation and its manifestations in light of doctrinal and empirical material from four countries: Chile, the UK, South Africa, and India. It argues that while the familial discourse is complex and some workers may identify with it, its overall impact is to perpetuate devaluation, for example, in minimising workers’ demands for improvements and extracting additional work from them. It also examines how a lack of recognition of skills and complexity contribute to devaluation and discusses social reproduction theory as a route towards better valuation of domestic work.

The chapter assesses the extent of domestic workers’ exclusion from rights to minimum wage or key social security provisions applicable in other sectors, arguing that better regulation of these areas to include domestic work generally works against devaluation. Drawing on the case study material, it identifies three broad trends: the relatively strong regulatory framework with countervailing factors maintaining devaluation in Chile and South Africa; the familial discourse and relations of servitude in India; and devaluation based on an exemption from minimum wage that existed for some live-in domestic workers until recently in the UK. The final section explores the role and potential of human rights law in counteracting devaluation, including through recognition of the value of domestic work in findings of forced labour where pay has been denied, and challenges to exclusionary frameworks using indirect discrimination. Beyond equalisation with existing frameworks, I examine the arguably stronger right to a living wage and to fair pay, which is derived from social rights instruments, arguing for an approach to these rights that properly accounts for the value of feminised domestic work.

About the Speaker

Dr. Natalie Sedacca is an Assistant Professor in Employment Law at Durham University.

Her research focuses on human rights and labour law, with a particular interest in domestic workers and other marginalised workers, and in issues of gender and migration. Her PhD, completed at UCL in 2021, analysed the legal position of domestic workers and their frequent exclusion from protective labour law legislation in relation to two case studies, Chile and the UK, and criticised this from a human rights perspective. Natalie is now working on a book project arising from the PhD, which also includes case studies of South Africa and India.

Natalie has been a co-investigator on a funded project conducted as an equal partnership between NGOs and academics about the effects of conditions for agricultural and care work visas in the UK on workers’ vulnerabilities to trafficking and other forms of modern-day slavery. Natalie’s other research projects include: the human rights implications of the ‘hostile environment’ for migrant women; the rights of domestic and childcare workers in the ‘gig economy;’ and addressing violence and harassment at work.

Natalie is on the Research Committee for the Society of Legal Scholars and was previously the joint convenor for its Labour Law section from 2021 – 24. Natalie is a trustee for the migrant domestic worker NGO Kalayaan and is on the Executive Committee of Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights.

Before entering academia, Natalie was a solicitor specialising in claims against the police and public authorities. She practised in this area for seven years post-qualification.

Reflections from the Speaker

“I am delighted to be visiting NSLIU, Bengaluru for the first time, and am very grateful to Dr. Saurabh Bhattacharjee and the Centre of Labour Studies for hosting me. I am currently working on a book project on the rights of domestic workers and the relevance of human rights law to challenging a lack of protection, which includes India as one of its case studies. I was introduced to NSLIU following a visit by my Durham colleague Dr. Clara Martins-Pereira and was particularly drawn to the Centre for Labour Studies, whose work overlaps in with my research interests on various topics such as informal work, precarious employment and forced labour. Since arriving at NSLIU, it has been very illuminating for me to meet with Centre members and hear more about their projects, which I hope will lead to future research collaborations.

In the Faculty Seminar on 22 January 2025, kindly organised by Ammel Sharon, I presented a draft of chapter five of my book project, entitled ‘The Devaluation of Domestic Work: Regulatory Reform and Challenges to the Perception of a ‘Family-Like’ Relationship.’ This chapter examines the ways in which a presentation of paid domestic workers as akin to members of their employer’s family devalues domestic work, overlapping with factors such as race, migration status and class. I examine how these discourses of devaluation overlap with regulatory regimes drawing on doctrinal and empirical material from four countries: Chile, the UK, South Africa, and India. The chapter also explores the role and potential of human rights law in counteracting devaluation and challenging exclusionary frameworks.

It was extremely helpful to receive feedback on my draft from legal academics and social scientists at NSLIU, ranging from technical comments on Indian law to conceptual questions on defining work and its value.”

Gallery

The Queer Archive for Memory, Reflection, and Activism (QAMRA) Archival Project is organising an Open Day for the NLS Community on January 15, 2025, with an aim to engage with and reflect on the histories and lives of queer movements in India. Come by to look at archival materials on display, learn about QAMRA’s archival collections and the histories of queer activism and legal struggles in India.

About the Open Day

The Open Day will open with a short introduction to the archive, which will be hosted from 11 am to 11:30 am. The NLS Community is encouraged to come and interact with archival material and video footage between 11 am and 5 pm.

About QAMRA

The Queer Archive for Memory, Reflection, and Activism (QAMRA) chronicles the lives, reflections and memories of queer persons in India. It holds interconnected collections of individuals and organizations, whose work has had a demonstrable impact on Indian society and law, making it an archive of national and international significance.

Reflections from the QAMRA team

The Open Day hosted by QAMRA was met with a warm and thoughtful response from visitors, both from NLS and from beyond its community. It began by giving the guests an overview of QAMRA’s work as an archive, providing an overview of the display selection. The team spotlighted a variety of material, ranging from legal documents and personal interviews from the movement against Sec. 377, books and booklets with historical significance to queer life and activism, postcards celebrating queer joy and expression, and video clips from the queer movement over the years. The display also showcased photos and objects from the first and subsequent Bangalore Pride marches. A student-made chart from an elective course previously delivered by QAMRA was also on display, highlighting the archive’s engagement with the student body.

Visitors keenly and thoughtfully engaged with the material, expressing interest in wanting to visit again and spend more time closely looking at the archive’s holdings. As QAMRA, we look forward to further engagement with the NLS community.

The QAMRA Archive is located in the New Academic Block-113 (Ground Floor), and is open to visitors on Thursdays and Fridays (2:00pm – 5:30pm).

Gallery

In this week’s faculty seminar, Noor Ameena, Assistant Professor of Law at NLSIU will be presenting on “Muslim Law and Legal Pluralism: Intersections of State and Community in Matrimonial Dispute Resolution among Muslims in Kerala.”

Abstract

Even though Muslim Personal Law occupies a disproportionate space in the Indian public sphere, the diversity of personal law practices is seldom explored. In this thesis, I intend to provide a field view of Muslim Personal Law through Family Courts, Mahal Committees and Qazi Offices. The study is set in Kerala. The study brings out the evolving jurisprudence of Muslim Personal Law through Family Courts. Within the framework of legal pluralism, the study examines the interaction between state and community systems of matrimonial dispute resolution, and how the rights and entitlements of the parties are mediated through these forums. It also studies how individuals, as well as the community, respond to the incursions by the state into their personal law. The study finds that the state and community systems of dispute resolution constantly collaborate with one another. The individuals engage with these systems by strategic inter-use to derive the desired results. There is a systemic and strategic integration of state and community systems. There is a constant process of secularization in this domain, however when this happens, the community is ‘holding on to religion’ in terms of substantive law, and ‘ceding to state’ in procedural law. In response to the incursions of state, the community law and systems are re-adjusting themselves into the boundaries set by the state, without completely losing their identity.