Are SP sufferers covered by Disability Discriminations Act?

Hi there,

I've been working as an HGV driver for the last year and have just been made redundant. Our company's sales are down 45% so they had to lose 2 of the 10 drivers. The criteria they used for selecting people for redundancy was “Number and length of absences” over the last 12 months.

I had my first SP in August last year, which kept me off work for 4 weeks and in June this year I had a second SP which kept me off for 3 weeks. These two occasions have been the only time I've been off work in 14 months (excluding paid holidays, of course).

I'm currently taking legal advice about whether the company can legally select me for redundancy by using the amount of time off I've been forced to take due to a medical condition. Apparently it could be possible that people suffering SPs are covered by the Disability Discriminations Act. Anyone got any experience of this?

Cheers.