I will try to help based on how my company operates. Anyone who is employed for less than a year can be dismissed by their company without the company having to give any reason for why they have decided to dismiss. An employee can appeal against this if the dismissal was made on the grounds of discrimination or harrasement, be it racial, sexual or bullying.
While I have said that a company can dismiss without any reason in an employee's first year, if a company decides to take an employee through a disciplinary process during the first year of employment, they must continue to go through the proper disciplinary procedure, they cannot suddenly invoke the 'less than one year rule'. If they do this, the employee will have grounds for an appeal against their dismissal.
Is your friend back at work yet? There is a danger that if she takes too much time off sick, the company can decide that she is too much trouble and effort to continue to employ, it sounds very unfair but it is their right to do this. However if they do this, there may just be some grounds for appeal on this, dependant on if she was asked to sign any medical questionaire at the start of her employment and if her sickness can be proved to be a pre-exising condition that they did not bother to ask her about.
Also has your friend put anything in writing to her boss about the bullying episode, even if she feels that the boss has been involved? My suggestion would be that she emails the boss asking for a meeting to discuss some of the above issues. Then once the meeting has finished, she should email him again stating that the email is to clarify the points discussed and raised at the meeting. Any emails like this can be held by her if she needs any written evidence of any harrassement by her company.
(continued in next post)