Obesity Is A Disability: EU Court Ruling Comes After Nanny Deemed to Fat to Babysit

A European Court has ruled that obesity can constitute a disability at work and employers will have to treat their staff with such a condition accordingly.

Obesity can constitute a 'disability' within the meaning of the Employment Equality Directive," the European Court of Justice ruled, reports the Guardian. "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 ruling was a result of a case brought in by a Danish child minder Karsten Kaltoft, who claimed he was dismissed by his local authority employers for being overweight.

He was 160 kgs at the time, but his employers, the local authority in the small town of Billund, denied the claim.

"It is good that we now recognize that obesity can be a handicap, and I hope that municipality realise that it was not okay to fire me," Kaltoft said. The father of three is now employed as a truck driver.

Most importantly the court made it clear that the orign or reason behind the obesity is not important. The whole concept is based on that the disability restricts the person from performing his/her work duties to his full capacity.  

The EU court did not define what Body Mass Index (BMI) would be considered obese and said it would be determined on a case to case to basis.

The ruling has been greeted cautiously and the ambiguity in the ruling will make employers err on the side of caution. This also has the potential to lead to a landmine of resentment from the less overweight employees.

Others have welcomed the move saying it is good that obesity is recognised as as disability and it will set a precedent of preventing employers from discriminating based on weight.