Blogtown, PDX

Friday, November 23, 2007

News Breaking the Law—Fat Discrimination

Posted by Matt Davis on Fri, Nov 23 at 11:23 AM

Welcome to the third in at least four in a series of blog posts entitled Breaking The Law, wherein I come across a lawsuit I feel you’d benefit from knowing a little about, but can’t be bothered to poke too far into it, so I stick it on here “for your interest” and forget about it forever. Last week, it was seriously injuring someone with a mannequin. This week, it’s discriminating against someone because they’re fat. Which is very, very bad.
FAT PEOPLE: HAVE RIGHTS. DON’T DISCRIMINATE… NB: This picture is for illustration purposes only. It does not show the plaintiff in the lawsuit.

Remember: I’m writing about pending litigation that’s not yet been decided in court. So we’re talking about allegations, and not facts. In other words, it may well be true that fat people are disgusting and deserve to be fired. But probably not. In fact, definitely not. Fat people have rights!

Robert J.Caskey of SE Portland is suing Qwest Corporation for at least $100,000, alleging wrongful termination and discrimination. On May 16, 2003, Caskey, who had worked for Qwest and its subsidiaries since 1979, underwent gastric bypass surgery to correct his morbid obesity. He suffered serious and debilitating complications from that surgery including heart problems, sleep apnea, hearing loss, loss of bone in his spine, and occasional confusion. He is disabled under Oregon statute 659A.100, according to his lawsuit.

Caskey was able to work his job in a call center at Qwest, he says, with minor accommodations, including short breaks from sitting to allow him to move around and use the restroom. But he alleges Qwest refused to accommodate his needs, and furthermore, that Qwest’s managers subjected him to ridicule and unreasonable work conditions as a result of his disabilities.

Caskey took medical leave again in late 2004, and returned to work in February 2005, in order to have surgery. When he returned to work, he alleges his managers began questioning him continually about when he would need further medical leaves and asking him about his medical conditions. He told his managers he expected to need another medical leave in December 2005.

When Caskey returned to work, he alleges his managers “began placing unreasonable conditions on his employment. They began writing up disciplinary reports for every infraction they could find. They transferred him to working in residential sales and refused to provide him with training in the new area.”

On December 7, 2005, Caskey’s managers told him he was being suspended without pay for a supposed error in sale. The reason Qwest gave for the suspension was a pretext, Caskey alleges, for Qwest to terminate him wrongfully. Caskey alleges Qwest terminated Caskey wrongfully on December 31, 2005, because of his disability.

The case continues.

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Comments

First off I am a fat man. I'm not chubby, I am fat. I can speak as an expert in regards to this as I have been a fat person since I was roughly 8 years old and now hold true to the fat lifestyle at the tender age of 29. Fat fat fat fat fat.

I'm not going to claim to know what percentage of the morbidly obese are self inflicting this fat lifestyle but I would guess it's the majority of the morbidly obese. From what I've studied and from what I've experienced this seems to be the case.

I would assume this is the reason this story has no comments as opposed to a story about say, a one breasted woman being denied a job as a stripper and suing or some racial discrimination, etc. There's a lot of guilt and sympathy being spread over a large demographic and there simply isn't room for the fatties. PUN!!!

What these guy is dealing with I've dealt with my whole life. Most of my stories are different because I've been tall since I was 11 years old. I was 6 feet tall by the time I was 12 or 13. People treat you a lot different when you're tall.

Point blank, if I wasn't a person of reason and I felt I was owed something for being fat, I could have sued an former employer of mine for refusing to promote me within the company despite stellar performance reviews and after simply being told, you're too big to do the job. It simply wasn't the case. They speculated and himmed and hawwed (sp?) at one particular part of the job that they felt I wasn't capable of doing and told me because of my weight, I couldn't do it. I was never provided a chance, and overheard several conversations confirming this. I didn't even think this was the reason until I heard these conversations. Obviously I'm leaving details out and don't really hold any emotional tie to the issue. I just don't care.

The ironic thing is this. Being 6'6" and over 400lbs, I am still a very athletic person. I have been an amateur boxer for years. The amount of agility and stamina required of a boxer is staggering. Sure past 4 rounds I'm useless, but, I'd love to see some of the smoking and drinking thinly folk that are keen on turning their nose up to we the wide actually box for twelve whole minutes.

At most jobs I've had in my life anytime the time comes for my promotion I have never received a promotion that would put in a position to do physical labor. I highly doubt this is a coincedence but, that's fine. I get enough of a workout from walking the dog, boxing, hiking, and playing video games.

Straight up, I have little doubt this dude was discriminated upon due to his health issues. I've also been through this when I was very sick at one point in my life. The pack mentality where management is keen on picking off the supposed weak in a litter is terrifying in my experience. People get sick, it happens...

The moral of the story is no one cares when fat people are discriminated upon because it's still socially acceptable to make fun of fat people in public. It's really the one health issue left that is ok to ridicule. I better stop writing, I need to head on over to OHSU and find some lung cancer patients and make fun of them for having smoked their whole lives. Stupid no breathers.

Posted by Jay Williams | November 26, 2007 10:16 AM

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