Camelôs e ambulantes do centro da cidade do Salvador/ BA: estudo de caso da localização e legalização como Micro Empreendedor Individual - MEI

Abstract

In December 2008, Brazilian Federal Government, through the Complementary Law 128, issued a policy to stimulate income and job growth through the creation of a specific kind of legal entity for the informal sector workers, called Individual Micro-Entrepreneurs (IME). In 2013, Salvador Local Government (SLG), by means of its Department of Public Order (DPO), proposed the rearrangement of street vendors in downtown. This study aims to analyze the effectiveness of IME policy within the scope of the rearrangement policy of street vendors on Sete de Setembro Avenue area in downtown Salvador, Bahia. It intends to find out whether the formalization into legal entities brought beneficial financial results to the street entrepreneurs. It was also investigated if the new arrangement of the street vendors´ stalls on such area was beneficial to their working conditions and if it met their wishes and aims. The overall matter discussed is whether IME policy is effective in reducing social class differences or whether it is just one more policy which aims political finalities. Qualitative and quantitative approaches to research were used. Bibliographical and documental searches were carried out. Questionnaires and interviews were administered to street vendors on Sete de Setembro Avenue area who decided to become IME, and a case study was developed out of the collected information. The documental search encompassed the decisions and actions of Brazilian public policies for stimulating income and job growth, between 1995 and 2015. Interviews were conducted with representatives of public agencies involved in the municipal program of localization and in the federal program of legalization of street entrepreneurs on Sete de Setembro Avenue. The results showed that most of the street entrepreneurs indeed opted for formalizing into legal entities, but they were not aware of the legal consequences of it. Besides, their financial expectations were not met as they had wished and aimed. Regarding the rearrangement led by the local government, it became clear that street vendors who remained at the same places they were before such alteration expressed satisfaction. The ones who had to move manifested their dissatisfaction and declared they have been losing sales due to their new settlements, which became far from the main places where clients pass by.