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Are you suffering from weight discrimination in the workplace? Did your employer give you worse work hours, remove your benefits, demote you, or terminate your employment due to your weight?
Is weight discrimination legal in the workplace?
Can your employer fire you or demote you because you’re overweight? Is that considered weight discrimination? Can you bring a lawsuit against your employer?
If you’re treated differently in the workplace because of your weight then that might be discrimination.
While weight discrimination is not illegal federally, you could still have a legal claim against your employer for various reasons.
First, check your state laws, some states do have laws protecting individuals from discrimination that is based on physical appearance and weight.
Under the federal anti-discrimination Title VII laws being overweight is not considered a protected class. Therefore, suing for weight discrimination may not hold up in court. However, if your employer also discriminated against you for one of the protected classes, such as race, age, religion, gender or disability, you could bring a lawsuit.
If your employer is disproportionately discriminating against all the overweight females in the company, or all the overweight individuals of a specific race, then these employees may be able to bring a lawsuit against their employer for discriminating against protected classes.
Sometimes overweight individuals may be protected under the Americans With Disabilities Act, and in such cases, can bring a lawsuit against their employers for discrimination based on disability. What is obesity? According to the EEOC, a person is severely obese if they’re twice the normal weight.
If you have questions or would like more information, send us a message.
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