Manual Handling with a Hernia?

[WishYouWereMine]

Hi,
Hoping there may be an expert about this morning.

DP has a hernia (surgery scheduled for end of May). He hadn't told his place o work about it as knew he would be dismissed at earliest opportunity. He works in a factory in a very physical job.

Work now know about hernia and are discussing termination of contract as they say there is a piece of legislation which says that you are not allowed to do manual handling if you have a hernia.

DP has not had a day off sick with hernia (he's been at this job since May 2014) and it causes little pain. He is perfectly physically capable of doing this job, and doctor has said he is fine to carry on working.

We are totally gutted. We have a holiday booked for the middle of May and although we can survive on my part time wages and benefits, we really don't want DP to lose his job.

Is there ANYTHING he can do? ACAS have said if they want to dismiss him then they can. Only solution we can think of is if DP goes on the sick until he's recovered from surgery if they don't want him on the line. Seems unlikely that this would be something they would go for though eh? He would have got full pay while on sick btw.

Thanks!

Ah they have now terminated his contract. Shit what are we going to do :(

I'm afraid they are allowed to dismiss him if they want to. Seems a bit harsh, as they are the kind of employer who pays full pay during sickness, but if that's want they want.

He could offer to either go off sick or even take unpaid leave until after his surgery. I don't know if they'd go for that, but he could ask.

Thanks flowery.
They wouldn't let him go off sick as apparently they can't even have him on their books if he has a hernia. They have said he can apply to go back once he's recovered from his surgery.
He is trying to get back into his old job (previous to this one) for a few weeks before we go on holiday just so we have a bit of extra cash to see us over his sick time.