r anti-discrimination law. For example, someone who is grossly obese and believes they have suffered employment discrimination as a result will have a good chance of winning a lawsuit based on discrimination if the obesity is due to some kind of disability or medical condition. However, if the obesity is not related to some already protected characteristics, chances are the courts would not view it as discrimination.Legally, employment discrimination law is designed to achieve goals that protect both the employee and the employer. It protects the employee from unfair bias and it protects the employer by diminishing the risk of lawsuit based on discrimination. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has been instrumental in the development of employment discrimination law. According to the EEOC guidelines, employment discrimination law should be designed to achieve the following goals in descending order of importance:Eliminating employment bias and arbitrariness from the workplace.Limiting employment decisions to unaccommodable criteria that are essential to job qualification.Facilitating occupational goal attainment.Enhancing employment decision-making.Designing ergonomically and psychosocially optimal work environments.Enhancing occupational mobility.Minimizing social costs of litigation.Facilitating resolution of employment-related disputes.Eliminating employee retaliation.(Amack 1)There is a fine line on employment discrimination law when it comes to appearance. Typically, appearance discrimination lawsuits have been decided in favor of employers as long as the criteria for appearance is applied equally to males and females. For example, models cannot sue a potential employer for not hiring them because they were considered less attractive than another model because the same criteria is applied to male models. Age discrimination has recently come under the protective reach of employment discrimination law. In Cam...
