NYC bans employment discrimination based on weight and height

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Dive Temporary:

• The New York Metropolis Council on Thursday voted to go a regulation, Int. No. 209-2022-A, banning employment discrimination primarily based on an individual’s weight or peak. 
• The invoice exempts employers that want to contemplate peak or weight within the efficiency of important job features and by operators or suppliers of public lodging.
• In line with a research by Vanderbilt College, solely a handful of different cities outlaw weight discrimination: Urbana, Illinois; Madison, Wisconsin; Binghamton, New York; San Francisco; Santa Cruz, California; and Washington, D.C. The states of Michigan and Washington even have such legal guidelines.

Dive Perception:

Dimension discrimination stands out as the subsequent frontier within the effort to eradicate office discrimination — and the following stage of D&I work.

The Nationwide Affiliation to Advance Fats Acceptance, an advocacy group that works to oppose measurement discrimination, expressed its gratitude to the invoice’s sponsor, Shaun Abreu, on Twitter and urged followers to contact their legislators and signal a petition to finish physique measurement discrimination.

As we speak is the history-making vote within the NYC Metropolis Council! When INT 0209 passes the Council at the moment (and it’ll!), NYC will affirm #SizeFreedom by outlawing peak & weight discrimination in employment, housing, and public accomodation. #signthepetition at https://t.co/FVmP9AISMk pic.twitter.com/eTVIqgbsIa

— NAAFA (@NAAFAofficial) May 11, 2023

Dimension discrimination within the office is gaining extra consideration as analysis reveals how frequent it’s for workers to report detrimental results. In a latest survey from ResumeBuilder, for instance, greater than 1 / 4 of respondents stated they’d skilled weight discrimination, and that quantity jumped dramatically — to 53% and 71%, respectively — when narrowed right down to self-identified obese and overweight respondents. 

Might knowledge launched Monday by the Society for Human Useful resource Administration appeared to substantiate these experiences. SHRM discovered that half of individuals managers stated they most popular to work together with “wholesome weight” staff, and 11% stated overweight individuals at their group should not handled pretty. 

Past its implications for variety and inclusive office conduct, the bias could have an effect on retention: Almost 3 in 4 staff who stated they’d skilled such discrimination stated it made them wish to give up. 

Along with allowances for peak and weight concerns that affect the efficiency of important job features, the regulation doesn’t forestall employers from providing incentives that help weight administration as a part of a voluntary wellness program. 

New York Metropolis’s regulation could spur additional motion; Massachusetts and New Jersey are additionally contemplating such measures. 

The New York regulation handed by a vote of 44-5. Whereas Mayor Eric Adams has not dedicated publicly to signing the invoice, his workplace has been encouraging of the efforts to go it and Councilmember Abreu is assured in his help, in response to a number of media sources.