is this classed as discrimination?

[ladyk1981]

my sister has worked for a legal firm for 4 years, has trained through the firm to get to executive conveyancer. Throughout this time she has suffered with ulcerative colitis a dehabilitating illness which has progressively got worse over the years (she has had the condition for 8 years and the firm were well aware of the illness when she was hired). As such she has had to have large quantities of time off sick (most of which has been covered by the firm using her holiday to cover it) The firm decided that because of her time off work that they would need to hire a locum to cover her when she was off sick. This was the case until she got back from a two week period of sickness in july and was told that the locum would do her job full time and my sister would work alongside her, that no client files would be opened in her name but as soon as they could see that she would be back to work with no absences then they would reinstate her back to her position and that the locum was only temporary anyway. Occupational health were instructed to contact her doctors so that they could obtain their position as to whether she would be able to return to work full time soon. Occupational health received information saying that the only way that my sister would be able to return to a normal life would be by way of an operation. The firm looked into private care for my sister but before they could do anything about it my sister was rushed into hospital where she had her colon removed and now has an illeostomy bag as well as some effects from the ulcertative colitis.She was away from work for a month and has at the moment been on a fazed return to work where she is working 4 days a week 9 til 3.30and has been told that she will be doing office admin for the time being with no role in her orginal job at all.

 

The operation that she has had means that she doesnt have any time off sick at the moment but work say they think she looks ill and tired all the time. They keep mentioning that they think the commute to work is not helping her as she lives 40 miles away. To get completely better my sister will need another two operations but her surgeons have told her that most people decide to get on with their careers and have children after the first op and she has anything up to 10 years before she will need to have the 2nd operation. Alternatively she can have the 2nd operation as soon as she is medically fit, which at this time would mean she needs to lose a lot of weight which takes time in itself. Work have had reports from the surgeons stating this but work are saying that the report emphasises that she will never lead a normal life until she has had all three ops (which is true because of the ileostomy bag but poeple live with ileostomy bags everyday) My sister was called into a meeting yesterday saying that the locum would take over her job full time and will be contracted into my sisters position after a year if my sister has not recovered from all three ops (she will not be able to have all three ops within the year anyway) that she would be demoted to basic admin elsewhere in the firm and that if and when she recovers she will then have to reapply for the same position within the firm when a job becomes available and undergo the normal interviewing process. All her training has been stopped and she has been asked whether she wants to go full or part time but that they are not really bothered either way. My sister is devastated she has worked hard to get where she is, feels like she is being forced out and that that they are using any excuses to achieve this. Work say that her job involves providing a one to one client service and that if they never know when she will go off sick or have the time off for other operations then it is affecting their business. Are they discriminating her because of her illness, can they demote her on these grounds?