Employers who fail to deal with unpleasant office banter or name-calling over employees’ weight could face claims for constructive dismissal as the debate over “fattism” in the workplace hots up.

According to Ben Willmott, the employee relations adviser to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, managers should be trained to be “sensitive to the issue of obesity and the problem of inappropriate language” and should ensure that they focus on staff skills and productivity rather than body shape when choosing candidates for promotion.

In contrast to the strict rules governing racial or sexual discrimination, there is no explicit legislation covering workplace discrimination against staff considered obese. But Willmott stresses that laws on bullying or, in extreme cases, disability discrimination — both of which could be used to bring a case of fattism against an employer — are well-established.

With one in five UK adults already classed as obese, concern over weight-related absenteeism is becoming a big talking point in boardrooms. Yet according to research both here and in the US, negative stereotypes around body shape are rife.

A poll of 2,000 HR professionals in the UK found that more than 90 per cent would hire a slim person over an obese one and 12 per cent said that overweight staff are not suitable for client-facing roles.

Thirty per cent said obesity was a valid medical reason for not employing a person in the first place and 47 per cent believed that obesity negatively affects employee performance.

Willmott says: “The way to tackle obesity is not to demonise the overweight or assume that they are lazy employees, but to help them with a raft of healthier lifestyle initiatives.” He adds: “After all, all staff, whatever their size, have the right to expect to be treated with dignity at work.”

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