[Closed] EU decides that obesity can constitute a disability

Just stupidity to go and then you can park there too.

Interesting, so lack of self control is a disability now...

The exercise physiologist in me is sad.

That doesn't really seem to be the outcome of the decision.

Response on the BBC:

Paul Callaghan, head of employment law at international law firm Taylor Wessing, said the ruling does not change UK law.

"The European Court of Justice has ruled that obesity itself is not a disability, but that the effects of it can be.

"As such, workers who suffer from, for example, joint problems, depression, or diabetes - specifically because of their size - will be protected by the European Equal Treatment Framework Directive and cannot be dismissed because of their weight."
Employers' responsibility

Audrey Williams, employment law partner at Eversheds, said the mere fact someone is obese is not enough to make them disabled.

"What the court are saying is that obesity is not protected unless it hinders professional life."

She said the ruling would increase awareness among employers of their responsibility towards obese employees in the workplace.

This could include making reasonable adjustments to working arrangements, seating arrangements or making access to the office easier.

If you are not capable of doing your job because of your size you should be able to be dismissed, this new ruling prevents that. More EU madness.

Do we class idiot, self congratulatory, black and white thinkers as people with a disability, but a right to work, or people as we can just summarily sack? In the context of people posting thoughtless drivel on public forum during company time.

A lot of weight problems have psychological roots, it's not just a simple case of lack of self control. Dismissing someone because they are overweight is not going to make them lose weight, quite probably the opposite.

Discriminating against someone because of their size should be illegal, so from that point of view this ruling sounds like a good thing IMO.

So the fatties

Change that to "****s" or "n****rs" and what does that sound like?

WOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOO. I'm off to Greggs, then to pick up my blue badge and apply for my benefits!!!!! 😀

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Just crazy. Another stupid EU law.

I had a complaint made against me 2 weeks ago on a flight back from China where what can only be described as a whale of man had a seat next to me. He had to raise the armrests on both sides to even get into the seat. I politely asked the air stewardess to be re-seated so that the whale could have more space to which she very kindly obliged. Whilst I was collecting my items from the overhead locker, said whale complained to the air steward that i was discriminating against him by being asked to move!! WTF?

*pulls up a chair and opens packet of low fat healthy snacks*

*jogs on the spot eating an apple* 😆

Fattist!!!!

We could all cheddar few pounds.

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Is this thread making anyone else feel hungry?

Comparing someones race with someones inability to control what they eat?
Come on now.

[i]Fattist!!!! [/i]

No, I think you will find you are the fattist, fatty.

It's pretty easy to say people should exercise self control but when people develop a serious problem with alcohol or pretty much any other drug then often the only way to deal with it is complete abstinence.
Any of the hard of thinking on here want to do try that with food?

I was 10 stone soaking wet.
I got sick.
Got shitty medication that put nearly 6 stone one me.
I'm working very hard to lose it. I run 5k every day, go to a gym 4 times a week with a personal trainer.
I follow a strict diet.
I am still classed as obese.
There's more to weight problems than eating shit.
If it's accepted as a condition by the EU, what's the problem?

The guy the case was about said

Describing his work with children, he said: "I can sit on the floor and play with them, I have no problems like that.

"I don't see myself as disabled. It's not OK just to fire a person because they're fat, if they're doing their job properly."

Yes, but could you chase around after them pick them up ok, move around the nursery, change nappies, play in the garden with them, go on outings to the park etc etc? I suspect not, so is that "doing your job properly"? You could be the best "floor player" in the country but if you cant do the rest of the job...
Doing a part of what is required of the job that you were hired for (when at that time you could have probably done all of those things) is one thing but if you can't do the rest. So IMO it's fair as any dismissal on medical grounds.

It's not covered in the article but there could well have been offers of help from the employers before this too. He must have been aware of his situation a limitations and things seem to have not been address. You don't get to 25st over night.

Anyway the final dismissal was on grounds of reduced demand, so any employer will look at the best and least able staff and obviously choose to get rid of the worst and as he could only manage a small part of the entire job he went. That's not unfair in my eyes.

Worked for me...

http://thefastdiet.co.uk/

yaaay, let's celebrate the chubbies

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Why has "the inability to control what you eat" only become an issue over the last 20 years? Why is it now that 1 in 4 of us are obese?

Yes there are folk out there with genuine health problems that can go towards putting weight on (I had this too, I ballooned by 3 stone due to meds I was on at the time increasing appetite, but I realised this and did something about it. I can blame the meds but it was me who was putting crap in to my mouth)

Most people are eating too much and doing too little to burn it off and blaming everything else but themselves

Change that to "****s" or "n****rs" and what does that sound like?

There are too many excuses and this will just give them one more.

We're still allowed to persecute gingers though, right?

Any of the hard of thinking on here want to do try that with food?

[url= http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2012/07/24/3549931.htm ]http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2012/07/24/3549931.htm[/url]

Any of the hard of thinking on here want to do try that with food?

I love fish & chips me.

I wish some of you would just calm down. Nothing in the ruling is likely to stop you being able to judge and sneer at people whose lives and circumstances you know nothing about, so just carry on as you were.

physically addictive non-necessary substance like alcohol

i dont know, would the human race survive without alchohol induced procreation?

more seriously comparing fatism to racism is out of order.

I'm in Love...chuck in a couple of Bavarian slices and I would Wed the Lass in the pic posted by Binners up yonder.I can taste the Wedding snap now

by "hard of thinking" do you mean an inability to tell the difference between a physically addictive non-necessary substance like alcohol or a non-physically addictive necessary substance like, say, food?

Why do you think food isn't physically addictive???

comparing fatism to racism is out of order.

Why? Discrimination is discrimination, be it because someone is black, white, fat, ginger, whatever. Fattism is becoming the last socially acceptable "ism".

Seems pretty reasonable to me.

Someone who is morbidly obese is clearly going to be [i]less physically able[/i] than someone who isn't. That sounds like a disability to me.

What's the issue? Is it because it is "self-inflicted"?

If that is the case then presumably this guy shouldn't be allowed to call himself disabled either then?

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Or is that a bit trickier to get sanctimonious about?

Or is that a bit trickier to get sanctimonious about?

In all fairness he did that doing his job, didn't he? Which is a very different scenario to someone who due to non work related psychological problems developed an eating disorder and is obese.

What I don't understand is at what point does it become an employers problem what goes on in an employees private life? (assuming it is not the employer who is to blame, then that's very different.)

There a lots of 'conditions' you can be fired for that surely fall under the same umbrella as obesity - drug abuse, alcoholism, etc. You can be fired for being high or drunk at work, is that fair if you're addicted to drugs or an alcoholic?

comparing fatties with actual disabled people isn't quite right is it. they don't have a choice to lose their disability, self inflicted or not, and neither can someone change their race if they fancied it either... i lost 5 stone in my mid 20's which was purely self inflicted pie/drinking/lazyness weight (and not in one iota due to an underlying issue), i'm now a lot healthier/fitter/happier as a consequence and can't see why any other lazy arsed sod can't do the same. fair enough if an underlying condition means someone can't help themselves to the biscuit tin

comparing fatism to racism is out of order.

Congratulations to all of the sanctimonious skinny people who all lost weight and now have the right to preach at the fatties. Help yourself to a [s]cake[/s] apple.

I thought the monthly fat thread was about due. It's quite refreshing to see the same old arguments trotted out month after month. 🙄

This one has the bonus 'Bloody Europe' angle too!

i dont know, would the human race survive without alchohol induced procreation?

I'm afraid I'm pretty right wing about the treatment of fatties. Comparisons of fatism to racism are frankly offensive. Being born with a particular skin colour is normal and healthy; being morbidly obese is not, moreover it is entirely self inflicted and preventable. Again, the comparison to someone who has injured themselves in an accident such as and are now disabled, such as Martyn Ashton, as eating far too much over a sustained period is about as far from an accident as you can get. The reality is most people are fat not because of an underlying problem, but because they have easy access to high calorie food and no self control.

I would concede that if they have complications as a result of it they should get treatment for their symptoms and access to disabled parking etc - creating needless suffering benefits nobody - but I will not absolve them of all blame for their situation.

Giving fatties their own parking spaces sounds like a brilliant idea. No fatty is allowed to park within one mile of their chosen destination and the final mile has to be done under their own steam by walking, on a scooter or bike.

Job jobbed. 😀

skin colour is normal and healthy; being morbidly obese is not, moreover it is entirely self inflicted

I think you'll find that becoming morbid is something that happens to a person, not something that a person does to themselves.

Your brain is no more able to sort out it's own malfunctions without help, as is any other part of your body.

The Cloward–Piven strategy ...