The Telegraph – by Bruno Waterfield
Fatness “can constitute a disability” for the purposes of European Union equality at work legislation, Europe’s highest court has ruled.
The judgment means British companies will be required to treat obese workers as “disabled”, providing them with larger seats, special parking spaces and other facilities.
“Obesity can constitute a ‘disability’ within the meaning of the Employment Equality Directive,” the European Court of Justice ruled.
“While no general principle of EU law prohibits, in itself, discrimination on grounds of obesity, that condition falls within the concept of ‘disability’ where, under particular conditions, it hinders the full and effective participation of the person concerned in professional life on an equal basis with other workers.”
The EU court ruling, which is binding on British employers, follows a case brought by Karsten Kaltoft, a Danish childminder, who claimed he was sacked by his local authority employer because he was so overweight.
Mr Kaltoft, who now has a different job as a lorry driver, hailed the ruling as victory against his sacking by his former employer, the local authority in the small Danish town of Billund.
“It is good that we now recognise that obesity can be a handicap, and I hope that municipality realise that it was not okay to fire me,” he said.
“I never saw it as a requirement that I needed to lose weight and never had a feeling that it could cost me the job.”
Important to the ruling, is the EU court’s judgement that the origin of the disability is irrelevant even if someone’s gross obesity is caused by overeating or gluttony.
“The concept of ‘disability’ within the meaning of the directive must be understood as referring to a limitation which results in particular from long-term physical, mental or psychological impairments which may hinder the full and effective participation of the person concerned in professional life on an equal basis with other workers,” said the court
“The directive has the object of implementing equal treatment and aims in particular to enable a person with a disability to have access to or participate in employment. In addition, it would run counter to the aim of the directive if its application was dependent on the origin of the disability.”
Karsten Kaltoft claimed he was sacked by his local authority employer because he was so overweight (FOAWEBTV/Youtube)
The Danish local authority that employed Mr Kaltoft fired him amid reports the 25 stone man was so fat that he required help from a colleague to tie up children’s shoelaces.
Following his case, British employers will have to bear the costs of litigation and finding ways to ensure fat workers are not placed at any disadvantage to slimmer colleagues.
“This ruling is a real problem for employers. It’s still not clear enough for them to be sure that they’re going to be on the right side of the law,” said Julian Hemming, employment partner at law firm Osborne Clarke.
“This test could mean that businesses face claims from obese staff for failing to make reasonable adjustments to their role if the job entails tasks where they would be on an unequal footing with other staff – tasks that require full mobility such as stacking shelves in a supermarket for example.”
“Employers will need to consider whether they make any adjustments for obese staff to protect themselves from discrimination claims, but they also need to consider whether doing so could trigger employee relation issues and related claims from other members of staff who feel that their obese colleague is ‘getting away’ with doing less work or ‘avoiding’ manual tasks – and that they are doing more of this work as a result.”
Vanessa Di Cuffa, employment law partner at Shakespeares, welcomed the judgement.
“It is right that the EU has moved forward with enshrining this into law,” she said.
“This is the right decision. Although previous legislation allowed for employees to be protected against other forms of discrimination, it is positive that obesity is now being seriously recognised.”
The EU court declined to define what level of Body Mass Index (BMI), the measure used to calculate the degree of obesity in an individual, would be required to class soemone as disabled, ruling that decisions would be made on a case by case basis.
Mr Kaltoft never weighed less than 25 stone during his employment, meaning he had a BMI of 54, a measure which takes into account a person’s weight and height.
Lawyers have warned that the lack of clarity will lead to confusion.
“The ECJ’s press release makes no reference to the level of an individual’s BMI,” said Mr Hemming. “Skirting this issue is going to leave the phrase ‘severely obese’ open to judgement and create further confusion for employers and employees.”
Other employment lawyers have welcomed the ruling as holding back from setting a “general principle prohibiting employers from discriminating on grounds of obesity”.
“Had the ECJ found that obesity is a protected characteristic in itself, it would have opened a can of worms,” said Crowley Woodford, an employment partner at the Ashurst law firm.
“What about protection for those who are underweight, short or tall or who simply believe their employer thought they didn’t look attractive enough? It could become difficult to know where to draw the line in terms of workplace protection for body shape or physical appearance.”
So by calling it a “disability”, the Communist/Zionist government that we have in the US can use this EU logic to say no fat people can have guns because they are “disabled”. It could easily be another excuse for them to grab our guns in the future. It wouldn’t surprise me.
I’m overweight but I would never try to claim it as a disability. What a crock of ….!
They’re opening pandoras box by the allowing for the opportunity of gourmandizing as a means for special treatment.
Didn’t Homer Simpson try this?
What disables them is laziness, and that’s why they’re fat, and the fatter they get, the harder it becomes to exercise. The cure is well known and simple: get off your ass and stop shoveling crap into your face.
The Jolly Roger miracle diet is one sentence long: If it didn’t roam the Earth, or grow out of the Earth, it isn’t food, and therefore doesn’t belong in your mouth.