Defenselessness, Offense and Counter-Offense in Legal Disputes Between Employers and Female Domestic Workers

Domestic workers in Spain occupy a vulnerable position in the labor market and in society in general, due to economic, legal and cultural factors. This vulnerability manifests itself in the defenselessness of workers in front of state justice. This chapter deals with the logic of some judicial conflicts between domestic workers and employers—conflicts in which the former is sued by the latter for alleged theft—in the light of the vindicatory theory. The chapter reconstructs in detail three cases particularly emphasizing the lived experience of the worker, in which notions of offense and underservingness, as well as of helplessness and a cry of justice stand out. It also addresses the specific logic of plaintiffs (employers), in which a sense of offense and a search for a disproportionate retaliation maintains a prominent role.