Ethical dilemma re work placement for adult with intellectual disability

Hi all, as per title I'm in a bit of a dilemma and would welcome some input. It's a bit complicated, so apologies in advance for the length of the post to come.

Background - I'm starting a new business, whose opening has been delayed by the lockdown etc but which is finally due to start trading next month. It's something I've been working towards for well over a year by now.

In August last year, I had been talking to someone I know who works with a local voluntary organisation which supports adults with learning disability in finding sheltered housing, work placements, supported employment etc. We ended up discussing the possibility that one of the service users there might benefit from starting a voluntary (i.e. unpaid) work placement out at my place, doing things like cutting grass, painting fences etc. This would amount to somewhere between 2-4 hours per week. I'll call the person Paddy (not his real name). He has mild/moderate intellectual disability, but would be reasonably capable and independent - however he is & will always be under the care of his family. My buddy put me in touch with Paddy's support worker, whom I'll call Catherine, to see if we could sort something out.

I was (and to be honest, still am) fairly uncomfortable at the idea that someone would come and do work for me free of charge. I understand that there are benefits for "Paddy" in terms of developing social skills, having something constructive to do and so on. At the same time, it still feels exploitative - I knew he wouldn't be getting paid for the work he does, at least not for a few months until I have enough money coming in to afford it. While the same applies to me (i.e. I won't be taking an income from the business until I'm over the hump of start-up costs and can cover running costs) at least that's my choice as it's my own business. My intention would be that once I can be paid, he can be paid, even though that still feels a bit like weaselling out of doing the right thing from the outset. But at the end of the day, during the startup phase the option is either that he would do this work unpaid until probably the end of the summer, or else I continue to do it myself and he doesn't come here at all until I can offer him paid hours.

Anyway - after talking all this through back in August with "Catherine" and with "Paddy" himself, we agreed that he would start with me on an unpaid basis in April, hopefully progressing into paid work by July/August. Of course, like I said the pandemic lockdown has since thrown all plans into disarray, so when that happened myself and Catherine agreed that the placement wouldn't start until things were back on track.

Now for the second part. Going back to last August, I knew that it would be well into the spring before any work placement could start with me, but as my wife is the boss at her place of work, I had asked her if she could think of any role for Paddy which might provide some paid work - similar kind of idea, doing a few hours per week of low-level maintenance, painting etc. She worked out that he could do this under the supervision of the caretaker and after going through all the same kind of preparatory discussions as I'd had, that placement started last autumn and is still going on. Paddy only gets minimum wage there, but it's the first time he's actually earned anything so he's happy doing two or three hours a week.

However - when I spoke to Catherine at the start of this month to let her know that I now expected the work placement with me could start in the second half of July coming, within a day or so she came back to explain that now he had started earning a few quid, Paddy had decided that any other work placement he does should be paid and that this idea has, in her words, "really taken hold". I said that was fine from my perspective, that I absolutely wouldn't be pushing for him to come here and I that only want him here if he wants to be here. But it would mean I can't offer him any work placement for another few months, until I have the money to pay him. Catherine really wants him to start the placement anyway, as does Paddy's mother "Orla" who is his primary carer, but apparently he has become very reluctant to do anything unpaid. From what Catherine was saying at this point (early June), I started to get the impression that Paddy was now being pressured into coming here, so I reiterated as tactfully as possible that it wasn't a case of me wanting to get some grass-cutting done for free, and that I would only want him coming to work here if he himself was keen to come. So we left it at that.

Fast forward to today - Catherine phoned to say that she'd tried to persuade Paddy that coming to a voluntary placement here would still be very good for him, but that he was still insistent that any work he does should be paid. Catherine then told me that Paddy's mother "Orla" had suggested she could put some money into his account every week to let him think that he's being paid by me for working here, that Orla puts money into Paddy's bank account every week anyway, but was suggesting this way he would believe it was coming from the work he'd be doing here.

I have to say I didn't feel right about this at all, as it would require me to have to lie to Paddy and pretend that I'm the one paying him. Myself and Catherine talked it over but I just couldn't get past that, so it was left that Catherine would explain this to Orla. A short while later, Catherine rang me again to say that Orla has now told Paddy that while I couldn't pay him because of how so many businesses are struggling with the effects of the lockdown, I still really wanted him to come and do the work here anyway, and that I had been asking specifically for him. So he has now finally agreed to come out here after all and work for me without pay.

I know she's his mam and is probably trying to do something good for her son, but I have to say this is ringing all sorts of alarm bells for me about exploitation and deception. I was at pains to point out that I didn't want to force him to come here, but now Paddy has effectively been hoodwinked into working for me for nothing when he (rightly) wants to be paid for the work he does. I'm not a good liar at all, and I don't want to be either. I'm really at a loss as to how to proceed from here. I don't want to turn round and tell Paddy that he can't come here after all, but I don't want him cajoled into being here either. I also don't want to be put into any situation I'm not comfortable with.

I'd be glad of input from anyone who has experience of working with vulnerable adults, especially people with intellectual disability. Apologies again for such a long post.