In a recent decision the Employment Appeal Tribunal confirmed that obesity itself is not a disability for the purposes of discrimination law. However, it held that conditions caused by obesity are likely to render someone disabled. In Walker v Sita Information Networking Computing Ltd, the EAT overturned an employment tribunal’s decision that an obese claimant was not disabled under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.
The EAT considered that the employment judge had fallen into error in ruling that the claimant was not disabled. The judge had wrongly focused on the fact that he could not identify a cause for the claimant’s impairments rather than considering “the effect” of those impairments on the claimant’s day-to-day activities.