EU court deems obesity a disability at work

Now, obesity will be deemed as disability in Europe as the top court here on Thursday passed a ruling saying the obese people can be covered by a European Union law barring discrimination at work.

The decision came in the pretext of a question from a Danish court, which is reviewing a complaint regarding unfair dismissal brought by a child-minder, Karsten Kaltoft, against a Danish local authority.

The Court of Justice of the European Union was asked to decide on whether the European Union law prohibits discrimination on the basis of obesity or whether the weight problem could be considered a disability.

Kaltoft has argued before the court that his obesity was one of the main reasons behind his dismissal from job as well as his extra fabs only amounted to unlawful discrimination, but the allegation was denied by the council.

Kaltoft has never weighed less than 352 pounds while he was employed.

While pronouncing its ruling, the Luxembourg-based court said that the employment law in EU did not mainly forbid discrimination on the basis of obesity and the law must not be extended to cover it.

However, the court maintained that if the obesity problem in an employee hindered “his/her full and effective participation in the professional life on an equal basis with other workers” then in that case weight problem could be considered a disability.

The figures by World Health Organization (WHO) (based on 2008 estimates) shows nearly 23 percent of women and 20 percent of men in Europe were obese.