Jon I am not a lawyer either but IMO you are on shaky ground if you do not hire someone because they are out of shape and in a real bad position if you fire them for becoming out of shape.
From the web site you linked to.
Job Applicants
Massachusetts employers are prohibited from discriminating against prospective employees based on race, color, religious creed, national origin, ancestry, sex, age, criminal record, handicap (disability), mental illness, retaliation, sexual harassment, sexual orientation, and genetics. In addition, employers have an affirmative responsibility to provide maternity leave to biological and adoptive parents.
We have had people go out on disability because they where to FAT.
The SSA (Social Security Admin.) considers obesity a medically determinable impairment.
In general our ladders are good for 300 Lbs capacity. Once a person exceeds that we can't make them climb the ladder, now that person is not much use to us but we can not fire them either.
A lot of this may be different for small shops but we are a very large shop with deep pockets that lawyers would just love a chance to empty.
To each their own but the company I work for treads very lightly with issues like this.
Bob
