Weight Discrimination

My name is Amanda, and i am an overweight young lady, but I am very capable of any and everything I do. I was working at a small chiropractic office in California as the Massage Therapist. While I was there, my boss' massage stats were increasing and up from what they were before I was employed there. My boss would frequently stare at me with a look of disgust on her face at meetings. (She is a very petite woman). One evening shortly after i had missed a day due to illness, my back-up therapist, who is also an "Isagenix" consultant, called me and stated that my boss had approached her and asked her to talk to me about my weight. About 2 weeks later I decided to politely express to my boss that my weight was really none of her concern, especially since it did not affect my performance at work. And that she shouldn't have spoken to anyone other than me if she had an issue with it. She responded with "I can talk to anyone I want to about whatever I want." And she continued to tell me that as a massage therapist I am a billboard for health and that when people see me they don't think that I am healthy. In the remainding weeks that I worked there she made it a point to bring up weight-loss programs and excersing to my attention. A few weeks later i was terminated...her reasoning being that she thinks we are incompatiable. She made my job a living nightmare. Do I have a legit case against her?

[randalljd]

It may a tough case to pursue as they can dismiss just as you can quit for almost any reason, but it normally cannot be solely due to weight after they hired you as you may be able to argue bad faith, seek damages etc. You could consult your nearest Department of Labor office to briefly discuss the issue with them first...you may also want to ask the company to put what is happening in writing and explain to them that you may have attorneys review the situation...try speaking to a higher level of management (if any exists) about the issue; they may override the other managers. If none of these efforts resolves the issue, let us know.


see the discussion here too: HR Hero Line: Why can't I fire overweight employees?

Q: I am the manager of a retail business that sells outdoor recreation and fitness products. Being something of a fitness nut myself, I'm concerned about what I see as the obesity crisis in our country, particularly among young people. What's worse, it seems to be becoming more of a problem among our employees. Everyone knows that obesity is bad for your health, and overweight people just look out of place in our business because of the products we sell.

I decided that I would like to impose some weight standards on our workers for their own good health and for the image of our business, so I asked my HR director to prepare a draft for me. She spoke to our attorney, who told her that we would be exposing ourselves to legal liability if we adopted and enforced weight guidelines. Is he right? If so, why?

A: Your attorney is correct. Although you might structure a policy that's legal, there's no doubt that adopting weight standards in a retail sales business would produce a high probability of legal claims from rejected job applicants or employees who are fired for failing to meet your standards.



Disability protection

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) defines "disability" as "a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of the major life activities." Although physical characteristics, like weight that's within the "normal" range, aren't usually considered disabilities, those that are caused by a physiological disorder are.

The ADA defines "physical or mental handicap" as a condition that "substantially limits one or more of an individual's major life activities." To be covered by the ADA, you must employ at least 15 people.

The ADA protects obesity as a disability. The morbidly obese are more likely to be protected than the merely overweight are. Ironically, the result may be that disability laws will bar you from firing an obese employee because of perceived notions of his inability to do the job, but they don't prohibit discrimination on the basis of looks.

Well, isn't there something called a "Bona Fide Occupational Qualification" that would exempt employers from legitimate descrimination? Anyone providing health services should set an example for their customers by being healthy themselves. I would never go to a massage therapist or any other service provider who is overweight because it means they don't care and they're ignorant about the health consequences of their lifestyle. The boss should not have hired this person in the first place.