Overweight - Safety Issue

HR in TX

We have an employee who has gained a lot of weight in the past year. His weight was no problem when he was hired in terms of the physical requirements of his position. However, he now is too heavy to SAFELY do that part of his job. It is time for his performance review and his supervisor would like to discuss this with him. Does anyone have suggestions about this? I think there are legal implications, but I am not sure what they may be. Any advice or comments will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Gillian3

Be careful. Who decided the employee cannot do the job safely and what data was this based upon? Has the employee injured himself? What does the doctor say and is what the doctor says based upon a review of the job description? There are potential ADA issues here so you want to get beyond "I think this is dangerous". You might want to delay talking about it with the employee until you evaluate the issues a bit.

Balloonman

Tell the fat ass he needs to lose weight or that you will have to let him go! We cannot allow gluttony to create a safety hazard. It is time to take a stand.

Hopefully by now all of you have figured out that I am just kidding. :-) LOL.

Tough question actually, depends on what the hazard is, and if weight/ size truely creates a hazard. Like body odor, just a tough area to deal with. How does his weight create a safety hazard?
My $0.02 worth.
DJ The Balloonman

HR in TX

He climbs pipe racks (petrochem industry) and must be able to go into very confined spaces. The use of a safety harness is required for fall protection.

HR in TX

The supervisor is the one making the assessment that the weight is a safety issue. There are no weight requirements in the job description. The employee has not yet injured himself.

marc

Sounds to me like you are on thin ice, and with weight as the issue, you are likely to break through and drown!

Unless you have some documented, valid reason to fear that this EE's weight is indeed safety related, tread lightly. I have an outdoor camping chair that says something like "good up to 230 pounds." Someone weighing more than that should obviously not use the chair. Is the EE standing on a peice of equipment that will collapse? Are the aisles in his work area to narrow for his girth? What kind of safety issue arises because of his weight? If you cannot get defendable answers that indicate weight is a safety issue, tell the supervisor to back off.

Perhaps the supervisor is biased and is covertly targeting the EE through a made-up safety issue.

mwild31

then tell the supervisor to go stuff himself with a carrot stick. x;-)

If you don't have any weight restrictions established and the risk has not been previously identified, then you're out of luck this time around. First, the appraisal is not the time to 'surprise' someone with this type of information. Second, if your company does not have any safety issues identified with weight, it's not in a job description, it hasn't been an issue brought up by the safety manager, then where does the supervisor get off? Don't give the supervisor the 'greenlight' to discuss during the appraisal - you'll only get blamed. Do, however, if it really is an issue at your company and there are legitimate concerns, meet with the safety folks & see if there's a way to incorporate the weight factor into the job requirements. Also, before implementation, meet with your employment attorney, so they are aware of your new requirements.

Gillian3

An assumption, then? If the employee is working safely what is the issue? As soon as the size exceeds the confined space then you will have something objective to work with. This needs more evaluation than what has been done.

Cinderella

Oh boy what a day that will be... "well Bob, it appears that you are now too big to fit...." I wouldn't want to have that conversation, even if it was obvious! x:D

System

Gillian3 is on target. Morbid Obesity is covered under the ADA. Other things are covered under the job description if you use them. Job descriptions should include the physical demands of the position. It's rare that weight has anything to do with job performance unless the employee has to climb ladders, fit through a small confined space, or lead an aerobics class.

If the employee has acquired the weight problem over time, it can only be addressed as a performance or safety issue.

Dan

In a previous job I had a similar situation. Had a large employee who weighted well over 350 lbs ( he was/is 6’8”). Regular fall protection is rated for people up to 250 lbs and a few heavy duty fall protection harnesses are rated to 300 lbs. Unless you have some kind of documented evidence, such as this, or a record if injuries, you have nothing to say the employee is not safe.

TN HR

I could just see it now....."Well, Bob, we'd like to to make a reasonable accomodation for you under the ADA for your morbid obesity, however, the battleship anchor chains and 60K Crane necessary for fall protection creates an undue hardship for us, so, here's an Atkins book and some ephedra pills........."

Crout

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 03-02-04 AT 02:57PM (CST)[/font][br][br]I agree with all the posts, but the heart of the question was if there were legal ramifications, and I don't think there are. Certainly, there are jobs that require a specific level of fitness and agility. I know of no Federal or State protections for big people (it's possible that there is some local law out there, and of course California is always a wild card). Issues of weight and personal appearance are the last, accepted discriminatory practices of their kind. The fact of the matter is that large sized people are hired last, for less money, and are awarded fewer promotions than people more "normal" sized. While I think there have been more than a few cases of employers being sued for discriminating on the basis of size, I don't believe that any of those folks prevailed. So, are employers free to adversely discriminate against large-sized people? Maybe, but keep in mind that while you might win a legal battle it may end up costing you quite a bit of money. Oh, and by the way, it's also wrong to do things like that to people....just something else to consider.

Don D

Crout: Surely you jest. Obesity is for a fact covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act. If and when the gentleman cannot perform the essential functions of his job (entering what are referred to in safety terms as 'confined spaces') then it is time to discuss performance. If it leads to a discussion of weight/size, then it does. We cannot simply arbitrarily make judgements that people cannot do jobs when they're fat. When I worked in the trucking industry, I was amazed on a daily basis that some of the drivers, men and women, could get into the cab of a hundred thousand dollar Freightliner without a forklift and pry-bar. Didn't our predecessors used to say people couldn't work after a certain age or a certain trimester or if they were (gasp!) women?

Crout

Sorry, I misstated my point of view. Interestingly, while simply being overweight is NOT considered an impairment, "severe obesity" (defined as weighing over 100% more than "normal" body weight) IS an impairment for the purposes of ADA. And of course if the obesity were caused by an underlying physiological condition, it most definitely would be an impairment under ADA. However, getting back to the original post, it would be very possible to fire that employee for being overweight, so long as he is not so fat as to rise to the level of being impaired. So if his "normal" body weight should be 200 pounds and he is fired for being 250, he would NOT fall under ADA. By the way, I'm not advocating for this compnay to operate in such a manner, I just find the complexities of the issue intriguing. What do you think?

Don D

I think it's a futile exercise. Nobody in HR or any other position or function who is not clinically trained in such matters had better be about the business of deciding what weight people SHOULD be and how much overweight they ARE, and whether, based on those assumptions, a person can perform a job. x:-)

Crout

I agree completely.