Employer Can't Fire A Worker For Being Obese, EEOC Says

By most accounts, Lisa Harrison was a dedicated, hardworking employee. A manager of child-care services for children of patients at Family House, a Terrytown, La., drug treatment center, Harrison even moonlighted selling cosmetics so that she could buy gifts and supplies for the children.

But she also was severely obese. Standing 5 feet 2 inches, she weighed over 400 pounds. And in late 2007, executives at Philadelphia-based Resources for Human Development, which runs Family House, fired Harrison, claiming that she'd be unable to perform CPR in the event of an emergency.