SAN JOSE, Calif. - December 3, 2004 - At 6-foot-2 and 340 pounds, Josh Schmidt knows he's a big dude. But he never thought he'd be too big to get a job.

In a matter of weeks, Schmidt applied for his dream job, got it, then had it taken away because of his size. At a time when the number of Americans categorized as overweight or obese is skyrocketing, "weight discrimination" may be the next scandal to hit the American workplace.

This past October, Schmidt applied for an assistant signalman position in Richmond, Calif., at Northern Burlington Santa Fe (NBSF), a national railroad company. "This was a dream job, the one I wanted to retire on," Schmidt says. What made the position so appealing was not the pay or benefits, but the work itself. Trains are what Schmidt is about. He's got railroad tracks tattooed across his arms, takes his son to watch the yards on weekends and has collected so much archival material that he is a virtual walking museum of American railroading.

After applying for the job, interviewing, and passing a battery of physical and mechanical tests, Schmidt got an e-mail from NBSF offering him the job, contingent on a few more tests. Schmidt passed the background check, the drug screening, filled out a medical questionnaire and took a physical.

Shortly thereafter, Schmidt received another e-mail from NBSF saying their job offer was being rescinded. Schmidt had failed his medical examination. Although he does not have high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes or any other diseases commonly associated with obesity, Schmidt's Body Mass Index (BMI) was above 40, disqualifying him due to "obesity."

The BMI is an equation that calculates your height and weight to determine your weight status -- a score below 25 is considered "normal," 25 to 30 is "overweight," and over 30 is "obese."

Schmidt is convinced that the decision was prejudicial, and had nothing to do with his ability to do the job. He is appealing the decision through company policies. He also wrote a letter to the medical department pleading his case, saying he is big but in good health. Schmidt says that, in fact, he's excelled in every one of his past jobs because of his physical status, not despite it. He is currently doing temporary work as a furniture mover in San Jose.

NBSF would not to comment on Schmidt's case, or why the BMI is a standard for their employment decisions, especially after the job aptitude is already determined. It is possible that, because the company subcontracts the final stages of its hiring process to ADP Screening Services, it didn't even know the BMI was part of its employment process. ADP is an employee screening company that sells its services to employers by claiming they can reduce costs associated with hiring the wrong people.

NBSF Human Resource Representative Jacqueline Gomez, who interviewed Schmidt, didn't know why he was medically disqualified, and referred him to ADP. In a letter, ADP cited Schmidt's high BMI as the reason for the medical disqualification.

"With rising health insurance costs, employers choose not to hire big people, because they associate big people with poor health, even though the correlation is actually very weak," says Paul Campos, Professor of Law at the University of Colorado and author of "The Obesity Myth." Size, Campos says, is "just a lazy, sloppy, and unscientific way to judge someone's health."

Campos says the BMI is arbitrary. "They pick those numbers that determine 'overweight' and 'obese' just because they're easy round numbers that the $50 billion a year diet industry can work around."

Schmidt, who has played sports most of his life and still looks the part of the ex-jock, notes that he did especially well on the BNSF strength tests. Campos is not surprised.

"If you go by BMI standards, 97 percent of the NFL are overweight, and over half are obese," he says. By BMI standards, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Brad Pitt are categorized as overweight, along with 65 percent of the country.

Campos adds, "It is really the last legal form of discrimination because people think weight is a choice, unlike race or gender. This is false. That's why 90 percent of diets fail." He says that if a company really wants to save on medical costs it should have people take a stress test, a much more telling indicator of potential health problems.

Michigan, Santa Cruz, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco all have size related anti-discrimination laws. Lynn McAfee, director of advocacy at the Council of Size and Weight Discrimination based in Philadelphia, says that San Francisco's legislation is the strongest. The law was born out of a 1999 controversy at a 24-Hour Fitness Gym, which displayed a poster with an alien creature and the words, "They'll eat the fat people first." In 2000, after organized protests and pressure on government officials, San Francisco County added "weight" onto their anti-discrimination ordinance.

"Big people have been vilified to the point where we're not even supposed to be angry when we get discriminated against," McAfee says. She says weight discrimination is uniquely demeaning. "People discriminate and pretend that it's for our own good. It's very paternalistic." She says the point should not be about being thin, but rather, "to have good nutrition, exercise, and be healthy at whatever size."

Schmidt is still applying for other jobs with Northern Burlington Santa Fe while his appeal is processed. He's not looking to start a local fat acceptance movement.

"I just want to have a chance to do the job," he says. Balancing his 12-hour shifts at the moving company with taking care of his two boys, he just doesn't have a lot of time to go to the gym.

PNS contributor Raj Jayadev (svdebug@pacificnews.org) is the editor of www.siliconvalleydebug.com, the voice of young workers, writers and artists in Silicon Valley.