The NHS has reported that almost 25% of adults in the UK are obese. It will hardly be surprising to hear therefore that questions have arisen as to whether obesity is a disability.

In discrimination cases, employees can sue both their employer and anyone they think has helped their employer to act in a discriminatory manner. In London Borough of Hackney v Sivanandan, the Court of Appeal confirmed that where employees claim money from multiple parties, compensation must be awarded on a joint and several basis (i.e. the employee can claim the full amount from any of the parties and the unsuccessful respondents then have to sort out who ought to pay which proportion of the damages between themselves).

In X v Citizens Advice Bureau, X signed a volunteer agreement to work four to five hours a week for a Citizens Advice Bureau. The volunteer agreement specifically stated that it was “not an employment contract or legally binding”. The CAB subsequently asked the volunteer to stop working for the organisation. She claimed that this was disability discrimination.

To the great joy of the Daily Mail, in the much publicised case of Eweida and Ors v UK, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Nadia Eweida, a practising Christian and British Airways check in worker should not have been prevented by BA from wearing a visible plain silver cross necklace. Whilst the European Court agreed that BA’s aim to promote their corporate image was reasonable, there was no evidence that employees wearing religious items had a detrimental impact on that image. The European Court decided that there had been a breach of Ms Eweida’s right to manifest her religion. The fact that BA subsequently amended their uniform policy demonstrated that the earlier prohibition was not very important.