Right for the job (1963)

foreign jobs going begging but not for people like him he knows what employers think when they meet him face to face he jokes about like a puppet speaks in an odd way that left hand doesn't look much good and those legs how can they be of any use like that bad luck but the feather must be aesthetic simple-minded perhaps no we're sorry but he just won't go but that's where the big mistake is made a normal intelligent person in a disobedient body but there is a place for spastics and there's one clocking in at hunting aircraft he's different from his friends but they like him he kept his job for two years now and he's done it well on hypercism work of the kind where you just can't make mistakes and here's another large sperm in the aircraft industry that employs spastics Sir George Doty chairman of the dowdy group has this to say I have for many years been interested in the employment of the disabled and for 10 years I've been chairman of our local disablement committee some 12 months ago Mr Hargreaves of this Society came along to talk to us about his particular interests and we were so impressed with what he had to say let the wheel were quite willing to take on spastics on trial to see how they fitted in with Factory life the result was that we employed two of these people and they performed so well that we employed two others and I can say now from The Experience we've had that we should be most happy to employ more cases when they are made available to us everything let's see who else has given jobs to spastics now Crossing Blackpool are found employment for free that's Neil glencroft in the loading Bay we've got a at gec he's one of our Messengers we've got two spastics at Ascot Nick buck and Frank Merritt they're machine assemblers that nice telephone operator who greets you at Marmite is a spasticity yes we at Deco radar have Barbara bacon she's an Ascender in our marine radar Department the ladies at Garten College eat well they're served by Sheila Barnes yes she's a at Murphy we have Peter Rudd his job is feeding wooden panels into the glue spraying machine we not only employ three you'd take a press we've set up a scheme to train spare sticks to operate air machines in other firms all over the country we employ spastics in the London Office of the national society and plumber is Chief records Clerk in unemployment department and there are many more examples little names big names Kodak Marconi Pilkington glass Tesco stores Lucas scheduling cleaners rendley naffy Ferrante and scores of others and at reading universities as an assistant cook who's a it's his first job and he got it at the age of 40. spent more than 20 years in Mental Hospitals not because he's mentally defective but because there was nowhere else for him to live success for a depends very largely on the analysis of his abilities Made For You by the national Society you know a great deal about hispastic before you take him on failure for asbastic is much worse than for anyone else he just can't afford to fail if only because an unfortunate experience with one might discourage employers from taking on another it simply has got to work the society's method of selecting spastics for jobs is extremely strict and the training of them often goes on for a very long time let's see what Tony Ellis had to go through the selection began at school after years of training to reduce his handicap now he's ready to leave well now Tony you've done very well at school I want you to give Mrs Winn a chance to assess your suitability for employment all right perfect I see you've reached a level in several subjects attorney what would you like to do when you leave school my dad is an engineer and I would like that sort of work it's going to be rather difficult for you with those hands Tony he's done very good work in the wooden metal work department and has a good sense of design but he's rather slow still you've got his reports and he does try hard yes I think it would be a good idea if you came along to one of our assessment courses Tony then we can have some better idea of what we're able to do thank you Mrs win thank you doesn't look too promising does he but at Fortnight at the society's assessment course will soon show up his possibilities let's see what else lies in front of him Miss Morgan the society's employment officer runs these courses we're very pleased that you've been able to come along this morning Colonel Jackson to give us all the talk about the new sheltered workshop the society is planning to build now because we've been talking quite a lot about work this week work of all types working order employment and sheltered employment and in work centers and even at home can you tell me again on Jefferson what hours you are asking your employees to work the normal hours will be from eight to five I thought they may be altered as the local approaches request and traffic conditions do you think there'll be a room for me in the sheltered workshop I hope so that will depend on the result of this course as you know this assessment course is held to determine whether you will be fit for shelter Workshop open employment and industry or in a work center or a home oh but Colonel Jefferson just helped me to say if I was to go to a shelter Workshop I shall be there for the rest of my life I don't need you may well get a sheriff who will train you in engineering for urban industry or you may come to my sheltered workshop where I will train you for open industry but it may take a little longer I hope you've enjoyed this Fortnight Tony yes you want to do engineering don't you yeah not quite as easy to get a job as you may imagine you know but Mr Orman wants to run through some of the Practical work with you again just to see how you manage the more fiddly jobs yes um now you've done both of these before Tony and they're quite straightforward firstly I want you to put the nut and the three washers onto the boat fine thank you secondly a bit more difficult I want you to put the terminals onto the nuts and bolts the black ones on one side the red ones on the other side right you know how to do it thank you man coming in for a minute Mrs Winn thank you good thank you Tony that's fine Tony you've tried very hard but you're still a bit slow aren't you I'll be having another chat with you later on but in the meantime I expect you'd like to go and join the others thank you good Hello Johnny you've just been having a chat with Taylor Swift he's very keen he's not really ready for a job as he is is he Mr almonds no I don't think I could place him as he is at the present I think he needs special training how do you feel Mrs Winn yes he does need training he's very mature in his behavior as well after all he's only just left in school I think he shall get a shower yes Gerard certainly seems to be the next best move for Tony Tony has spent months at Shadows the society's Training Center getting used to Industrial conditions plugging in regular hours different types of work learning safety precautions he earned pay living on a grant from the ministry of labor he worked with more determination than almost any young man of his age he really wanted a job and he learned to mix with other people oh foreign was discussed regularly with the staff at Gerards with Ministry of Labor officers and the society's assistant employment officer and only then was he passed but what's the result of all this training has it done Tony any good what about that walk of his it still looks pretty clumsy doesn't it but is it really as clumsy as all that I'd like to satisfy myself with a short test if Tony will help me yes I'm going to rub my shoes in one of these colors and walk down the corridor so that you can see my footsteps then I want you to follow me right sure now you ever try well done Tony he's by no means as clumsy as all that is he see for yourself but how about his hands can you use those just as well well we've devised another test to see how he uses them compared with an unhandicap worker on an assembly job you ready Tony is it right no Vanessa well Tony is just that little bit slower but there's not much to do and it's not so clumsy either here's a graph of an earlier test with Tony's the lower green line and as you can see there's practically no difference nevertheless some people would say he still looks accident but he's dangerous seeing how he was trained in safety precautions here's the opinion of the industrial medical consultant to Huntley and farmers in the past few years we've come to understand a lot more about spastics spastics have a remarkable facility for avoiding accidents they've been taking precautions all their lives because they've had to carefulness is instinctive in a unlike so many other people now could we see that shot that illustrates my point let's do this with normal people accidents are almost always due to some sort of carelessness it is bored with his job a man's attention tends to wander but not Tony's he really needs that job that job is his one chance of establishing himself proving his human Independence you see what I mean I certainly do doctor thank you very much so Billy's Plastics have to go through a very fine screen indeed to get their jobs in the open market of Industry foreign youth employment officer you'll find there are many more young spastics looking for jobs today oh yes you see we're reaching a peak in the number of normal school levers this means of course that there's an increased number of handicapped and among them the number of spastics also more are being claimed and more people seem to be realizing that employment potentialities does the society assist you with advice certainly their careers officer can be most useful all these cases are very difficult indeed and we welcome any help we can get and the society's assessment courses and further education courses are indeed most useful things Tough Enough for the Tony Ellis's of this world but what about the others those Plastics that don't reach the standard for open employment are they just abandoned not at all some of these were at rimploy and here is a network of workplaces the society and its local groups have set up where the pace is not so hard these centers carry out subcontract work for local firms more and more of these places are being equipped and opened all over the country every year take the ruislip center in Middlesex it was set up for a variety of subcontract work they do jobs for people like Emi aec Johnson Matthey the Bell punch company and many others thank you then there are the very heavily handicapped for them the society provides work in their own homes so they too get that feeling of self-respect that comes from earning something from feeling still wanted they can do an excellent job printing these spastic's Christmas Dudley Virgo has a specially adapted Adana printing machine he earns a heap near card thank you the next time you buy your wife a piece of jewelry remember it could have been made by Myrna Johnson who can't use her hands at all along a number of senior Executives of industrial organizations to talk frankly about the problems of employing and finding work for spastics I don't doubt you know a great many artists yes indeed Mr Summers of hunting aircraft has got some comments that might interest you must have an awful lot of Precision Engineering how does Plastics manage to cope with this well they fit in quite well so long as you pick the right job for them do you need to take extra precautions to prevent accidents not at all they're quite careful themselves but one wouldn't put them on a high-speed cutting machine of any kind you choose the particular job or particular machine to suit the individual and they're quite easy Mr Cooper is Chairman of the general and Municipal workers union is there a union problem affecting as far as wage rates are concerned no I see no problem at all we've had similar situations the main men returning from the war and the industrially injured who have to be rehabilitated there's no real problem in all these cases can the unions themselves do anything to ensure more employment for spastics yes I think so and I like this idea of the societies uh induction of work people and I would think that where there is in a factory a representative Union or a shop stewards committee they should be brought into the picture right away and I think that would help a great deal are they especially liable to be affected by the last in first out rule I don't think so because they are in a group where I think all will appreciate that they're in specialized their forms of employment which wouldn't come under the general rule thank you Mr Cooper Mr Briggs tickle press takes pastics from the society for its own training scheme with your ticket labeling machines how do you find they turn out we find the very excellent employees in fact in many cases they're superior to the unhandicapped how would you compare the abilities of spastics once trained with those of other handicapped workers well if they start slow they soon catch up and in the end I think the desire to accomplish something overcomes their initial disabilities and we find them really excellent employees and the customers to whom they've gone speak very very highly of them Mr Stamos do you find that Ascot water heaters that take a long time to learn any job you give them depends on their disability if the disability is limited to the legs say they can do an assembly operation and learn it and do it as quickly as a normal person if however the handicap is severe arms hands legs then it does take a long while but the patients you can see continuous Improvement throughout the period Mr Carter you already have three spastics at Cross and Blackwell do you feel in somewhere that you're doing a favor by employing them a no we do not spastics do not ask to be favored in employment and they don't expect it like many other people with disabilities it's their wish to be treated exactly as normal people if you had to reduce staff at any time would get special consideration well that is something which fortunately in our case sell them arises but if it did we should treat spastics exactly as we would treat any other employee of the company as you're doing back in every aspect of their relationship with you most certainly Mr Frank Murphy radio must have a lot of intricate manual processes how do succeed in dealing with them that does depend of course a little on the nature of the disability in some cases it makes very little difference at all in other cases of course it could on very intricate work make quite a lot of difference I believe it performs with Marmite who actually imply a as a telephone operator now how does she manage to cope with this quite complicated operation although she's only the use of her left hand she um has learned to operate the switchboard very efficiently and obviously her rate of operation is slower than the normal person but on the other hand it's rather interesting to note that we've had one or two callers who've complimented us on our receptionist they're obviously showing that she must be doing the job very well God and she has a particularly Pleasant manner oh yes she obviously has a Charming personality which a voice which obviously helps but Mars over and above employment in factories canoe as director of the British Institute of Management see ways in which employers can provide work for spastics perhaps in special outside workshops oh yes indeed the national Society has got nearly 30 special workshops for spastics all around the country and these are developing all the time and this is a an excellent opportunity for employers to subcontract Work Direct to these workshops what sort of work can be handed out in this fashion by and large any kind of semi-skilled work requiring a good finished job for example simple machine operations packaging work stripping down of rejected parts or touching up of of items and indeed good quality work can be done as long as the time factor is a bit more gentle than is normal in the industry thank you very much indeed Mr Marshall thank you very much indeed for joining us let us hear now from a man who lost his legs in the service of his country group Captain Douglas Badin all these people ask is to be given the chance to do a job in the same way as you and I and you can be absolutely sure that in order to show you that they can do it as well as you can they'll probably do it a great deal better yes these young people really want a job of work and we in the society are doing all we can to see that they are carefully assessed and trained that we need your help when their training is completed will there be local firms to offer them the right jobs that they can do and will their workmates accept them be severely handicapped will there be enough subcontract work to provide them with full-time useful occupation and what about those men and women who are only able to work at home but are doing a wide variety of really first class work can we help them to Market their goods a start has been made but a great deal more has still to be done the society needs your support if the thousands of spastics in this country are to be given their chance to do an honest job