Fire chiefs are appealing against a tribunal ruling which cleared a firefighter of racist conduct.

Mark Versluijs was sacked following an incident in 2018 in which he made a monkey chant in a fire engine as it headed along Lord Street in Douglas.

Earlier this year, he won his claim for unfair dismissal.

The employment tribunal concluded that the fire service’s decision to find Mr Versluijs guilty of gross misconduct was ’unfair and unwarranted’.

It concluded that the principal reason for his dismissal was the whistleblowing ’protected disclosures’ he had made.

But last week the Fire and Rescue Service, part of the Department of Home Affairs, went to court to appeal the tribunal’s decision.

It argued the tribunal had ’erred in law’ by going ’far beyond its remit’ and carrying out its own fact-finding.

The advocate for the DHA, Kieron Murray, said the panel had substituted its own opinion on what was reasonable.

He told the court: ’The tribunal entered the fray and decided things for themselves.

’It went far beyond its remit to analyse the existence of reasonableness and genuine belief on the part of the employer.

’By consistently applying the wrong test or substituting in what the employer should have done, the tribunal erred in law.’

Fire chiefs had claimed the loud monkey noises and gestures were openly racist as they were aimed at a pedestrian who was walking along the pavement at the time.

But Mr Versluijs, a full-time firefighter based at Douglas fire station, maintained he had not even seen the pedestrian.

He insisted his monkey noises were directed at the leading firefighter who was known as ’Macca’s Monkey’ by the crew of Blue Watch.

’I was acting the fool,’ he told the hearing.

In its findings, the employment tribunal exposed a culture of bullying, laddish banter and sexist and racist comments in the island’s fire and rescue service.

It said it was in no doubt that Mr Versluijs made a whistleblowing complaint in early February 2018 about staffing issues and felt he had become a ’marked man’.

The DHA is seeking for the case to be remitted back to an employment tribunal.

There is no appeal on the issue of protected disclosures, the court heard. Joshua Quinn, representing Mr Versluijs, said there was no evidence that the tribunal had gone ’beyond the pale’.

He said the panel was allowed to take fresh evidence not available to the divisional fire officer who had carried out the investigation.

Deemster Andrew Corlett said the role of the tribunal was to review the evidence that was before the employer and to decide on the reasonableness of its decision.

He insisted it was not for him to substitute his own view on the merits of the case.

The appeal hearing has been adjourned to October 27.