In a tight job market, employers are looking at every aspect of the job candidate, including weight and appearance.
“Absolutely: It”™s becoming so competitive,” says Lizandra Vega, author of The Image of Success (Amacom Books) and a Briarcliff Manor resident. “Everything is so important now ”“ your grooming, your wardrobe, even your hygiene.”
“Clearly, with hundreds of applicants for any one position, there”™s a wide leeway for employers,” says Joseph M. Carbone, president and CEO of The WorkPlace Inc. in Bridgeport, Conn., a nonprofit that seeks to prepare workers in southwestern Connecticut, as well as Westchester and Putnam counties, for today”™s job market.
But while it may be mean and unfair to reject an otherwise talented hopeful for being a tad tubby or even downright unattractive, it”™s not in itself actionable, legal experts say.
“Being sloppily dressed is not a protected class,” says Howard Protter, managing partner of Jacobowitz & Gubits, LLP, a Walden-based firm whose areas of expertise include employment law.
Not much appearance discrimination protection
Yet Protter and other lawyers acknowledge that it isn”™t as simple as that.
“There”™s nothing illegal about discriminating against appearance,” says Gary Phelan, who recently joined Cohen and Wolf P.C. ”“ a Bridgeport, Conn.-based firm whose specialties include employment law ”“ as special counsel. “That said, if there”™s underlying gender, age or disability discrimination, that may raise legal issues.”
Phelan should know. He was the lawyer for the plaintiff in Connor v. McDonald”™s, a 2003 case that helped change the way people think about obesity ”“ at least from a legal standpoint.
In September of 2000, Joseph Connor applied for and secured a cook”™s position at a McDonald”™s in Hamden, Conn. But when the 420-pound Connor called McDonald”™s repeatedly to inquire about the status of the uniform he had ordered for the job, he received little follow-up. Subsequent visits to the McDonald”™s revealed other workers, hired at the same time, already on the job and a “Help Wanted” sign in the window.
Connor and Phelan successfully sued McDonald”™s under the federal Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and the Connecticut Fair Employment Practices Act, arguing that the restaurant monolith discriminated against him for being morbidly obese and thus, physically disabled. (Morbid obesity ”“ defined as being 50 to 100 percent above your ideal body weight or having more than 39-percent body fat ”“ can lead to diabetes, heart disease and certain cancers.)
But what if you”™re just overweight, middle-aged or less than a beauty? Well, you”™re not likely to have a case, unless you live in places like Washington D.C. and San Francisco, which have barred discrimination based on personal appearance, or Michigan, which has prohibited weight discrimination.
Economy drives uptick in discrimination suits
That doesn”™t stop people everywhere from trying to sue. Protter says he has seen an uptick in employment-discrimination suits in the last two or three years, with potential clients claiming that they were rejected for everything from their weight to their ethnicity. Protter attributes this to the economic meltdown:
“More people are losing their jobs. It”™s a very traumatic experience, and people are looking for a solution.”
All the more reason ”“ legal, employment and image experts agree ”“ to make the most of whatever you”™ve got to gain and retain a foothold in the labor market.
Just as long as it”™s within the perimeters of the law.
Says Protter: “You may need a lawyer as well as a fashion consultant.”
