Should employers let obese staff come into work an hour later?

The morning commute can be hot, cramped and miserable – and if you are obese, it only makes it more difficult.

Several newspapers have reported that a government adviser suggested allowing obese staff to turn up later for work, so they can avoid the worst of the rush hour.

“It can be working time, it can be having a bit of understanding that someone might need to turn up at 10 o’clock because they have trouble with transport or anxiety about transport,” Professor Stephen Bevan of the Institute for Employment Studies is reported as saying.

However, Bevan himself has distanced himself from the quotes, suggesting other publications have taken them out of context: