A breath of hot air, the poor and workhouses

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Anyone thinking about a Charles Dicken's novel conjures up a horrible nightmare of dark smoke filled chimneys, half starved families and workhouses for the poor. This scenario is far removed from our post "Cool Britannia" environment or is it? The EU has been a champion in the use of policy instruments such as vehicle emission controls, Integrated Pollution and Prevention Control (IPPC) and the Large Combustion Plants (LPC) Directive. The European Commission's most recent report on air quality sadly indicates that if its policies were implemented by all member states there would be even further improvements in air quality for EU citizens. Evidence of this is the continued poor air quality of UK cities such as London and Edinburgh  that perpetually ignore EU air quality standards. In 2011 EU air quality targets become mandatory which may see the imposition of fines from Brussels for any identified breaches. The fines are one issue but the choking question is the impact on human health from poor air quality.
Amazon one of the world's leading online retailers recently cut short the shift of its casual labour force at its Gourock, Scotland site in an effort to reduce their wage bill; with some workers who were compelled to work at the site as a condition of maintaining their Jobseeker's Allowance spending the rest of their shift at the plant as they were unable to secure public transportation to return home until the following morning.
Its all perfectly legal in the UK but is it ethical? As a righteous man once said "The poor you have always" and  I would also add workhouses