Thirty years ago, before the days of wheelie bins, Eric was deaf, mute and suffered from cerebral palsy. He had been unemployable all his adult life, but in his late twenties he started to follow round the local authority refuse collectors emptying dustbins. As the lorry reached the end of a street, Eric would go ahead of it and drag dustbins out from behind the houses to the front. His handicap made it a very slow and painful process, but it was something he could do and he was exhausted. This completely unofficial arrangement was accepted by the refuse collectors as they were able to complete their rounds more quickly and they were on an incent payment arrangement. Eric’s participation enabled them to complete their rounds in slightly less time. At the end of the week they had a collection and gave Eric a few pounds. This transformed his life, as he had a purpose and had some mates. Setting aside, for a moment, issues about legal entitlement to benefit ...

Questions 

1. Do you feel that Eric was being exploited by the refuse collectors? Local authority officials heard about what Eric was doing and said it had to stop.

2. Why do you think they made this decision? Do you agree with it? A personnel manager in the neighbourhood heard about Eric and arranged for him to be taught to operate a sewing machine. He was then employed in the personnel manager’s factory to maintain and repair all the overalls, a straightforward job carried out skilfully and conscientiously.

3. Do you feel that Eric was being exploited by the personnel manager?

4. As Eric was able to draw invalidity benefit, do you feel that the job should have been offered first to someone who was able-bodied? In the following three years, investigations twice demonstrated that the overalls could be repaired more cheaply by subcontracting the work to another company, but that decision was not taken. Eric carried on as an employee.

5. Why do you think that decision was not made? Do you agree with it?