Who to serve? The ethical dilemma of employment consultants in nonprofit disability employment network organisations

Australian Journal of Social Issues, Autumn, 2009 by Stephen Thornton, Greg Marston

Sub-Group 3: Virtue-based practice

Unlike the first and second groups, the third group of ECs only consider notifying Centrelink when they have lost all contact with the client, sometimes after many months of not being able to communicate with them. This group justifies its actions in terms of the welfare of the client and their practice regularly transgresses the DEWR guidelines. Although there are more than two ECs in this group, the following provides an insight into the ethical stance of these workers regarding participation reports for non-compliance:

PENNY: ... there's only one, one, one [emphasised] instance where I report ... it is only if I have lost contact with a client ... that is the only time I will breach. I'm failing that client; I haven't found the right triggers for that client. If the client suddenly disappears, he's no longer at home, he's not answering mail, he's not answering phone calls ... that's the only trigger I use ... to produce a PR.

SUE: ... if they want clerical type robots as ECs in a DEN well then they should look at hiring different people but I think you can't take the compassion out of it and if a person doesn't turn up you need to know the reason before you even think of putting in a participation profile ... I'd be very reluctant to breach somebody ...

In contrast to the first and second group's Kantian-like ethical values, the language ECs in this group use to justify their actions ('failing that client') and ('you can't take the compassion out of it') is more consistent with a virtue ethics value system. Beckett and Maynard (2005: 41) state that virtue ethics allows people to determine whether an action is right, not because it 'concurs with a duty, but because it is consistent with virtue'. In understanding how ECs in this group use virtue ethics to guide their reporting practices, social workers, for example, might believe these traits and virtues to include notions of 'compassion, honesty, integrity and tolerance' (Chenoweth and McAuliffe 2005: 50). This group, while also quite supportive of the Welfare-to-work policy like the other groups, is critical of the harshness of some of the program requirements and articulate their feelings in terms of compassion:

SUE: I've got nothing against mutual obligation, it's a good thing but you need human beings dealing with it with compassion ... when you're dealing with certain disability groups and I mean the, the implications of not meeting your obligations are not always apparent to some people despite you explaining that to them ... I mean it's too complicated for them to understand and, of course, they just often wear the breach on the chin and ah, because they can't offer a reasonable explanation or try and negotiate it and they can't negotiate it and I think the people that are most vulnerable are the ones that are going to get hurt by this.

PENNY: ... I'm a hundred per cent behind the principles of Welfare-to-work ... anybody who is working has got an added element to their character and its usually a good one ... even if it's a bad job they've got something to whinge about at the BBQ ... I really do strongly believe that working is the best place to fill in your hours. So I agree with that. But unfortunately ... I have a complete mistrust of DEWR, no respect for them at all ... the only issue I have is DEWR dealing dollars and cents and we on the ground level deal with people ...