http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/mai...29/ntall29.xml
A 6ft 10in graduate was refused a job as an air traffic controller because he was considered too tall to sit at his desk, an employment tribunal heard yesterday.
Ben Sargeaunt-Thomson, 23, had been accepted for the post but at his medical the doctor's height chart stopped short of the top of his head and he was failed on health and safety grounds.
Mr Sargeaunt-Thomson suggested ways in which his "work station" could be adapted, but when the National Air Traffic Services (Nats) control centre at Swanwick, Hants, insisted on withdrawing its offer he took it to an employment tribunal.
The Nottingham Trent physics graduate, who has size 14 feet and a 38 in leg, alleges indirect sexual discrimination, arguing that only a man could reach 6ft 10ins.
The tribunal, in Southampton, heard that Nats decided he would be unable to sit comfortably and that this posed a "danger". There was no practical solution and the job he had been offered in 2003 while still at university was no longer open to him.
Mr Sargeaunt-Thomson, who is still growing, told the tribunal: "I have wanted to be an air traffic controller since I was 13 or 14. It was my dream job.
"During the assessments it became apparent my legs were too long to fit under the control centre's work stations. I tried to position the chair differently but there was not enough legroom for me to sit comfortably."
He said that anyone taller than 6ft 2in would struggle to use the work stations. "Bearing in mind that men are generally taller than women, this is indirectly discriminating against men."
Andrew Hutchinson, the head of recruitment at Nats, said Mr Sargeaunt-Thomson would have had difficulty using the equipment. But the decision to withdraw the offer was taken reluctantly, "particularly as Ben was incredibly keen".
Mr Sargeaunt-Thomson, from Northampton, has since been offered an air traffic control trainee job in Luxembourg at a centre with adjustable desks.
Nats is making work stations adaptable for taller people and hopes to have the changes in place by 2012.
Judgment was reserved.