Valtyerra José (Jose Valtierra)

Biography

2019: Results of court with Medtronic concerning charge of dismissal because of obesity

At the end of August, 2019 judicial proceedings within which the former employee of Medtronic accused the company that he was dismissed because of pathological obesity ended.

José Valtyerra weighed more than 130 kg when he was admitted to Medtronic as the hardware service technician in 2004; by then, when he was dismissed 10 years later, he weighed more than 170 kg. In May, 2014 his chief noticed that Valtyerra experiences difficulties when walking and uses the elevator instead of ladders. Then he checked Valterra's work and found out that that noted 12 tasks as executed though, according to documents, was away on vacation the day before.

Medtronic dismissed the employee because of obesity

Valtyerra recognized that he did not perform a task, but was going to make up for lost time after the holiday. Later he said that the chief should not have charged it with such excessive work taking into account his state of health. Medtronic dismissed to Walter because of forgery, however that submitted a claim to district court of the USA, claiming that it is a disabled person.

The court of the State of Arizona made the decision for benefit of Medtronic as obesity is not the disabling disease according to provisions of the Commission on equal opportunities at employment (except as specified when obesity is caused by the main disease).

Vatyerra submitted the appeal, claiming that the court of the state incorrectly interpreted rules and instructions of the Commission. Also he noted that to other employees arriving similarly less drastic measures were taken. However the court found out that though some employees were late with task performance, they did not try to forge documents. Thus, Medtronic could not treat Valtyerra differently, the management did not meet similar offenses from other employees earlier.^[1]

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