Whitewashing the Green Receipt

The Recibio Verde (Green Receipt) is the Portuguese way of employing people, mostly young people, in the formal sector but without formal job protections, similar to long-term work as an "independent contractor" in the U.S. The Recibio Verde has shown up as a recurring symbol in the Precariedade (living at risk) and Geração à Rasca protests. Here is a Green Receipt sculpture carved in green marble, artwork available from the Caroline Pagès Gallery in Campo de Ourique.
(I've heard The Mill Was Made of Marble...but the receipt, too?)

So how many people are working under the Green Receipt?

Well, we won't find out from the Portuguese Census because the now-infamous Question 32 seems intended specifically to obscure a count of precarious employment.



Question 32 asks, "How do you do your work?" and the possible answers are (1) as the boss or employer; (2) work alone on my own account; (3) work for someone else; (4) unpaid family work; (5) work for a cooperative; and (6) other situation. The literal fine print says, "If you work under the Green Receipt but you have a fixed place of work in a business, a place in a work hierarchy, and defined hours of work, you must choose the option "work for someone else."

So we won't get insight into the extent of the informal formal sector from the Portuguese 2011 Census because the règle du jeu lumps together the precarious and the rest. Maybe there's a broader point there about class solidarity, but in the short run we are being denied insight into the dysfunctions of the economy.