As a carer the nature of your job will probably involve a lot of physical activity and lifting which could be harmful to your back. Whether your injury was caused by your duties or not, returning to work could exacerbate it. Due to the nature of your sickness, your employer may be wary about allowing your back to work, in case you injure yourself further. Your employer will want to protect themselves from any accidents and has the right to carry out a health and safety risk assessment to decide whether it is safe for you to return to work.
You mention that your doctor has said that you are able to go back and do ‘light duties’ but this will obviously be dependent on whether such duties are available in your line of work. As you suggest, your employer is obliged to offer you suitable alternative work if it is available. However, they do not have to create suitable light work for you if there isn’t anything that is already in place. If they would still need to employ someone else as well to do the parts of the job that you are unable to deal with and would have to create specific duties for you, then they may have a valid argument.
Talk to your employer about the situation and find out exactly what their concerns are. If you still have no resolution then the best thing to do is to seek advice on your specific situation from the citizen’s advice bureau or through ACAS. If you feel that your employer is treating you unfairly then you should follow the grievance procedure, as laid out in your contract. If you have no luck dealing with the dispute internally then you have the right to take your employer to an employment tribunal if you think they are discriminating against you because of your sickness.
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