Hi, hoping somebody can help with some advice for my sister. About 18 months ago she was diagnosed with MS and has since gone on to have two or three more relapses - sadly it appears she has a fairly severe form of the disease 
Each time she has had a relapse she has needed a couple of weeks off work, but in between she's fairly well, although has had the odd day off with D&V etc.
Last Friday, her last day at work before two weeks' annual leave, she was summoned, without any warning, to a meeting with her line manager and a representative from HR. She was told that they were unhappy with her level of sickness and that if she had any more time off they would need to look at cutting her hours. She's obviously very concerned about this and certainly can't afford to cut her hours, but now feels as though she's now 'not allowed' to have any more relapses or she will be in trouble. When she's not suffering a relapse she works very hard and certainly puts in far more hours than she's contracted for.
She's unsure of whether this was a formal disciplinary meeting and has so far not been given anything in writing about what was discussed (although she's still on annual leave anyway).
What are her rights in this situation? Is her line manager allowed to simply cut her hours if she takes any more time off sick? Does it make a difference whether any future sick leave is related to her MS or not? There was also a comment made along the lines of 'if you were planning on going skiing or something while you're on leave, we'd have something to say about that' which she was quite upset about. Surely it's nothing to do with them what she does while she's on holiday (not that she's going skiing anyway!)?!
I just feel so sorry for her, she's had such a shitty time in the past year or so with her MS, she split up with her partner recently too and now this