EU law for special obese person parking spaces
EU law for special obese person parking spaces
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cootuk

Original Poster:

918 posts

152 months

Friday 13th June 2014
quotequote all
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-27809242

"...The EU's top court is considering a test case which could oblige employers to treat obesity as a disability...
...Employers might in future have a duty to create reserved car parking spaces for obese staff..."


I wonder what the signage for such a space would look like?



SnailTrail

107 posts

149 months

Friday 13th June 2014
quotequote all
Being fat is caused by taking in more calories than your body requires - eating too much, moving too little. You can become less fat by simply reversing habits (eating less, moving more). Therefore, I'd say it's self inflicted and reversible.

Conversely, people in wheelchairs who are paralysed in some way, or missing limbs cannot just decide they want to get up and walk.

He should've used the gym membership they bought him.

jamieduff1981

8,092 posts

169 months

Friday 13th June 2014
quotequote all
This is interesting because of the current arguements in the offshore industry about helicopter safety and the frankly obese workforce being too fat to get out the fairly huge escape windows.

At present, the view taken is that we have machines which are complex, expensive and slow to replace and fat-compliant windows will come at some cost penalty (i.e. more expensive to operate due to being heavier/slower/able to carry less) and we have a workforce that don't know when to stop shovelling greasy chips down their pie hole. At present, the workers have to fit through a "window" similar to gauging hand luggage on budget airlines in a steel basket.

There is of course outrage from the fatties who feel discriminated against and want the onus to be on the helicopter designers/owners/operators to be able to accommodate increasingly overweight passengers.

An EU test case on parking spaces for fat b*st*rds could have significant ramifications across dozens of aspects of life if the fundamental view is that eating yourself into the shape of a beach ball is a disability. I would hope that pragmatism and common sense would prevail here. I find it hard to believe that they'd get many expert witnesses (i.e. medical professionals) who didn't support the view that it was entirely within the afflicted's ability to self cure.

"I eat because I'm unhappy. I'm unhappy because I eat" is not a sound reason to get special treatment over everyone else or have the world shaped around you.

Mound Dawg

1,925 posts

203 months

Friday 13th June 2014
quotequote all
jamieduff1981 said:
I would hope that pragmatism and common sense would prevail here. I find it hard to believe that they'd get many expert witnesses (i.e. medical professionals) who didn't support the view that it was entirely within the afflicted's ability to self cure.
I wouldn't count on this, look at what happened with car insurance premiums for women vs men. Despite overwhelming statistical evidence.

At 6 feet tall and 11 stone I'm looking forward to parking in the "fatty" spaces and having some sweating lardarse call me on it.

chrispj

266 posts

172 months

Friday 13th June 2014
quotequote all
cootuk said:
...Employers might in future have a duty to create reserved car parking spaces for obese staff...
They should put them in the furthest part of the car park to give some extra exercise...

Deerfoot

5,240 posts

213 months

Friday 13th June 2014
quotequote all
chrispj said:
cootuk said:
...Employers might in future have a duty to create reserved car parking spaces for obese staff...
They should put them in the furthest part of the car park to give some extra exercise...
hehe

Engineer1

10,486 posts

238 months

Friday 13th June 2014
quotequote all
chrispj said:
cootuk said:
...Employers might in future have a duty to create reserved car parking spaces for obese staff...
They should put them in the furthest part of the car park to give some extra exercise...
As an overweight person I have no problem with that make the spaces a bit wider and up the furthest corner from the door.

CAPP0

20,854 posts

232 months

Friday 13th June 2014
quotequote all
And this would be managed and monitored how, exactly? "excuse me sir/madam, you can't park there with a BMI of 28, you need to be 30 or more"?

Make yourself feel good; park in a fatspace and be called out for being too slim!

Riley Blue

23,205 posts

255 months

Friday 13th June 2014
quotequote all
Engineer1 said:
chrispj said:
cootuk said:
...Employers might in future have a duty to create reserved car parking spaces for obese staff...
They should put them in the furthest part of the car park to give some extra exercise...
As an overweight person I have no problem with that make the spaces a bit wider and up the furthest corner from the door.
Why do the spaces need to be wider, do the obese have extra wide cars?

jamieduff1981

8,092 posts

169 months

Friday 13th June 2014
quotequote all
Riley Blue said:
Engineer1 said:
chrispj said:
cootuk said:
...Employers might in future have a duty to create reserved car parking spaces for obese staff...
They should put them in the furthest part of the car park to give some extra exercise...
As an overweight person I have no problem with that make the spaces a bit wider and up the furthest corner from the door.
Why do the spaces need to be wider, do the obese have extra wide cars?
I think the implication is opening doors wide to get in. The solution of course is to just buy those Peugeot things with sliding doors. smile

Engineer1

10,486 posts

238 months

Friday 13th June 2014
quotequote all
Riley Blue said:
Engineer1 said:
chrispj said:
cootuk said:
...Employers might in future have a duty to create reserved car parking spaces for obese staff...
They should put them in the furthest part of the car park to give some extra exercise...
As an overweight person I have no problem with that make the spaces a bit wider and up the furthest corner from the door.
Why do the spaces need to be wider, do the obese have extra wide cars?
No but to get an opening to get a lardy body in you need to open the door wider.


The_Burg

4,853 posts

243 months

Friday 13th June 2014
quotequote all
The biggest problem with car parks is not human obesity but automotive.
Even a modern MINI is huge compared to the size of the car the spaces were designed for originally, (mk3 Escort i seem to recollect as that was the average car at the time).
They just aren't big enough for modern cars. Even worse with a 3 door and passengers.

TooMany2cvs

29,008 posts

155 months

Friday 13th June 2014
quotequote all
cootuk said:
I wonder what the signage for such a space would look like?
Did you read the same article as you linked to? I only ask, since the article's quite clear that the case (not a law, a court case) is about "treating obesity as a disability", so any "blubberbay" would just look like any other disabled bay, since that's exactly what it would be. The ONLY change would be in allowing people who are obese to use them.

Mind you, since the article also talks about the person in question not regarding himself as disabled, it's all a bit of a non-issue.

The court case is about whether somebody could be sacked for being overweight, even though he says it didn't affect his work... The offshore helicopter situation's very different, since there is a clear safety angle.

Lanby

1,106 posts

243 months

Friday 13th June 2014
quotequote all
Won't anybody THINK OF THE CHILDREN... he might sit on one of them!!

Lanby

1,106 posts

243 months

Friday 13th June 2014
quotequote all
Won't anybody THINK OF THE CHILDREN... he might sit on one of them!!

TooMany2cvs

29,008 posts

155 months

Friday 13th June 2014
quotequote all
Lanby said:
Won't anybody THINK OF THE CHILDREN... he might sit on one of them!!
The classic Far Side cartoon...

Justin Case

2,195 posts

163 months

Friday 13th June 2014
quotequote all
The original article was about a fat Danish childminder who was made redundant because of a shortage of children to mind. However:

[quote]Audrey Williams, an employment discrimination expert at Eversheds law firm, said
'Employers might in future have a duty to create reserved car parking spaces for obese staff, or adjust the office furniture for them'
[/quote]

Looks as if someone is already booking her ticket on the human rights gravy train.

Disclaimer: any guilt by association of our resident lawyer is of course stoutly* denied smile


Snowboy

8,028 posts

180 months

Friday 13th June 2014
quotequote all
Someone who overeats themselves into a disabled space is in some ways no different from someone who has a paragliding accident.
It's self inflicted, avoidable.
It's obviously different in many ways too. A disabled person can't exercise themselves well again but an obece person can.
(Some exceptions accepted)

I don't agree with giving them disabled badges - unless they have actually reached that point.

But, I would quite like a set of wide parking spaces for anyone who wanted them. smile

kambites

71,459 posts

250 months

Friday 13th June 2014
quotequote all
I thought some really fat people already held disabled badges?

Engineer1

10,486 posts

238 months

Friday 13th June 2014
quotequote all
Snowboy said:
Someone who overeats themselves into a disabled space is in some ways no different from someone who has a paragliding accident.
It's self inflicted, avoidable.
It's obviously different in many ways too. A disabled person can't exercise themselves well again but an obece person can.
(Some exceptions accepted)

I don't agree with giving them disabled badges - unless they have actually reached that point.

But, I would quite like a set of wide parking spaces for anyone who wanted them. smile
How about the person like my wife's grandad who has crumbled hips and emphasema but likes his food, he is fat but he is fat because he physically can't exercise due to his health issues.