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Fat People are Less Likely to be Promoted
British employers are overwhelmingly prejudiced against fat, to the extent that fat employees are not safe in their jobs, according to a new survey.
The survey, published at the start of National Obesity Awareness Week by the Obesity Awareness and Solutions Trust (TOAST), found that a staggering 93 per cent of British Human Resources officers say they’d rather give a job to someone slim than the fat candidate – even if the two job seekers had exactly the same experience and qualifications.
The survey showed that 30 per cent of HR bosses believe obesity is a valid medical reason for not employing someone and 37 per cent said they were not sympathetic to obese employees.
What’s more, many openly believe that obese workers spoil their company’s corporate image and said they’d be less likely to promote someone who is obese.
And British law would allow them to do just that, since there is no discrimination law concerning obesity, as there is for gender, race, age, disability and sexuality.
In theory, this means that it’s actually legal for an employer in Britain to fire someone simply for being fat, without even proving that their obesity stops them doing their job properly. Obese employees are not protected under the Disability Discrimination Act either, so obese workers are legally unprotected from teasing and bullying about their fatness.
“With obesity directly affecting one in four women and one in five men in the UK, this is a grave injustice to millions of ordinary workers who could, at any time, find themselves unemployed and unemployable, or suffering from bullying at work,” said health campaigner Anne Diamond. “Obesity is hard enough to fight, without having to bear it as a social stigma.”
Louise Diss, Chief Executive of TOAST, said that the survey results were not surprising. “Blatant discrimination of this nature is illegal in all areas apart from when it is directed at a person because of their size,” she said.
Being overweight or obese ups your chances of diabetes and heart disease, but studies have also shown that it increases your likelihood of suffering from depression and binge drinking. Social stigma and bullying could be the reason why.
Another example of discrimination based on size is the recent size zero debate (Read More: The Skinny on Size Zero).
Obesity (classed as having a waist measurement of over 35ins for women and 40ins for men) is a growing epidemic in this country, according to the World Health Organisation, with 20 million adults affected and one in five children.
An impressive 92 per cent of bosses said they were proactive about encouraging more healthy lifestyles, yet only 36 per cent of workers said they’d ever seen any sign of it. And while 69 per cent of bosses said they would seek medical advice if an employee’s weight begins to affect their work, only 4 per cent of employees said they’d ever been offered it.
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