Employee welfare, particularly in respect of health and safety
at work and mental health, is an incredibly hot topic as employers
navigate the roadmap out of lockdown and the return to the
workplace for their staff.
In October 2020, the British Liver Trust reported that alcohol
abuse had increased significantly during the pandemic, having seen
a 500% rise in calls to its helpline since the first lockdown began
in March 2020. Employers should therefore be prepared to address
issues that may arise from employees who may have suffered with
addiction.
Back in the Noughties, discrimination law in the UK was
dispersed amongst numerous different pieces of legislation: the Sex
Discrimination Act 1975, the Race Relations Act 1976, the
Disability Discrimination Act 1995, and separate employment
equality regulations for each protected characteristic of
religion/belief, sexual orientation and age. Then, in October 2010,
the Equality Act 2010 ("EqA") came into
