Eric Thirty years ago, before the days of wheelie bins, Eric was deaf, mute and suffered from cerebral palsy. He had bee

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Eric 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 bin 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 bin collectors as they
were able to complete their rounds more quickly and they were on an
incentive 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 dollars. 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 bin
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?