Terceirizadas, Centered: A Critical Analysis of Outsourcing and Gender and Racial Hierarchies in Brazil

This article critically surveys the Brazilian Supreme Court decision in Arguição De Descrumprimento de Preceito Fundamental (“ADPF”) 324, a landmark case in which the court declared prohibiting labour outsourcing as unconstitutional. It first examines the majority opinion, arguing that underpinning its logic is a neoliberal-based logic that dismisses any abuses inherent to outsourcing as mere distortions. It then turns to problems within the minority opinion, which only advocates for outsourcing “non-core” activities, namely care-related work. After surveying these limitations, the author uses terceirizadas (black, female outsourced labour) as a point of departure to demonstrate how the majority and dissenting opinions legitimize and perpetuate subordination by concealing power relations. Ultimately, the paper proposes a provisional anti-subordination-based argument to illustrate the unconstitutionality of Brazil’s outsourcing.