The European Court of Justice has already had occasion to compare a medical condition to a disability, even if discrimination linked to medical conditions does not constitute discrimination prohibited by EU legislation. It recently returned a judgement comparing a case of obesity to a disability, which therefore allowed the protection against discrimination to be extended to a Danish employee dismissed because he was obese. The court recalled that there is no “general principle of non-discrimination on grounds of obesity as such” under the legislation of the EU. However, on the basis of its definition of disability contained in a previous judgement (CJEU, 11 April 2013, case C-335/11, point 38), the court underlined that it would run counter to the aim of the anti-discrimination directive to define its scope by reference to the origin of the disability. Thus, in certain cases – reduced mobility, difficulty or discomfort when carrying out professional activity, or the onset of medical conditions – the definition of disability could cover a form of obesity, which would trigger the protection linked to the prohibition of discrimination based on disability. As well as its relevance for the protection against dismissal, this decision paves the way for requests to be made for duties to be reorganised, which the employer will be obliged to implement in order to keep a disabled employee in his job.
CJEU: case C-354/13, Fag og Arbejde, 18 December 2014
Date of publication
18 December 2014
Available language
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Country/countries concerned
Denmark | European Union
Categories
Case Law
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