Boys from the Blackstuff S00 E02 The Muscle Market

"TV series that defined the depression-scarred 1980s Britain"

Shown in 1981 as a standalone between the initial drama and the subsequent series, it centres on Danny Duggan played by Peter Postlethwaite, the building boss who employs people cheaply by being complicit in the social security fraud of his employees and therefore guilty of a crime himself.