Are they right to sack him?

Question

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/afp/20080716/tuk-britain-strike-fire-a7ad41d.html

Answer 1

yes they are right to sack him. if hes too fat to do the job properly then he should go. its not fair on his colleagues to have to work with him. suppose he collapsed on the job. who could pick him up and move him to safety?

Answer 2

No.  They could had put him on an admin post.

Answer 3

I suppose it  depends upon whether the fireman can do his job properly in accordance with the terms of his contract of employment.

Answer 4

No they are not right to sack him just becuase he is fat doesnt mean that he can not carry out his job

Answer 5

I think he should have been given the opportunity to have lost the weight first of all but perhaps he was.  Yes they should dismiss him.  It is a dangerous job and fitness is essential.  Perhaps they didn't have any other jobs to offer him.

Answer 6

Possibly. Without knowing all the details it's hard to make an absolute decision. Although it may have been possible to have given him an admin position he may not have been qualified/able to do this job; perhaps there were no other jobs available? He should have thought about his job before he put on so much weight as it gets to a stage where he'd be physically incapable of rescuing people and that's what he is paid for so his weight may be putting others at risk. Also he would have had warnings etc as it is not legally possible to simply sack someone without due process so there will be more to this than the media make out.

Answer 7

He should be fit enough to do the job he is employed to do and if not he puts his and other peoples lives at risk. Perhaps they could have given him an administrative job instead but due to staffing budgets i don't think that can happen these days - they've all got to share duties.

Answer 8

Sacked is a bit harsh me thinks, a suspension would probably have been better awaiting him loosing weight so that he could do his job again.

The thing is none of us know the whole story, and it could have been that during training he was given repeated warnings that his weight was causing a problem, and that he needed to lose weight. Because lets face it, if I wasn't clever enough to do my job they wouldn't have given me another job just because I'd been there a while.

The employment laws in the UK make it very difficult to sack anyone without giving them many warnings before hand, so it would suggest that this was coming for a while.

As for giving him an admin job, thats brilliant in theory, but you don't know if he was illiterate, or if he wanted to work in an office, or even if there was a job to give him, you can't just create a job because he's worked for the fire brigade for 20 years.

Answer 9

Medically unfit. Yes they are within their rights. He should lay off of the fried mars bars.

Answer 10

they could or should have moved him sideways.

but I think there maybe a hidden motive/agenda behind this particular story.

obesity is a growing western trend

are we going with it

or against it?

guess the fire service have made up their minds!

Answer 11

No, they shouldn't have done that. what they need to do is research because all firemen in Trinidad and Tobago are fat and is being paid to sit all day. Now, how great is that...

Answer 12

No. they should have given him another post or at least given him a hint first. (like a treadmill or something)

Answer 13

I too am in a high risk job, and someone that is not fit to do the job can become dangerous to everyone else.  I hope they gave him some sort of warning before hand.  If they did and he failed to comply then by all means they should have sacked him.  If not then they should have.

Answer 14

No. They are wrong. They should have offered him a non active job, especially after 22 years of service. If he doesn't have a case for discrimination, he should have.

Answer 15

If he can longer perform his firemen duties then his employers have the right to dismiss him, however, with his years of experience I would have thought they could have made use of him in an administration role with his knowledge of the industry.

I am sure his union will be taking up his case on his behalf if he feels he has been treated unjustly.

Answer 16

The question should be if you were trapped in a burning building would you trust a 20 stone fireman to rescue you or a fireman who was lean and fit! At that weight the guy is obese and obesity means unfit.

They should have helped the guy lose weight, given him 6-12 months to get himself into shape.