A whistleblowing supervisor who raised a series of health and safety concerns about Manx Utilities has won his case for unfair dismissal.

Alfred Frank Jones worked for Manx Utilities for 26 years before handing in his notice in December 2017.

He alleges his departure amounted to constructive dismissal from his £45,616-a-year job and he was therefore unfairly dismissed.

In one of a series of whistleblowing reports, Mr Jones highlighted the rotten condition of overhead poles later brought down by a storm, with live wires falling onto cars.

In a preliminary hearing, the employment tribunal ruled that a number of the 24 allegations raised by Mr Jones amounted to ’protected disclosures’ - legitimate whistleblowing.

Now the tribunal has ruled that the failures of management to handle his whistleblowing concerns adequately, and the backlash resulting from them, was the principal reason for his resignation, and so was automatically unfair dismissal.

Mr Jones said his whistleblowing had implicated certain members of staff directly and had brought into question decisions taken by some senior managers - and he had suffered detrimental treatment as a result.

He said certain individuals had wanted him ’out of the picture’ and had encouraged a decision to move him from Ballacottier to Pulrose power station.

Manx Utilities denies constructive dismissal and disputed every one of the 24 alleged protected disclosures.

The tribunal, however, ruled that four were proven - including a report about an alleged assault and allegations of potential asbestos exposure.

Mr Jones had also verbally reported the rotten condition of certain overhead poles. No action was taken and the poles were brought down by Storm Doris in 2017, with live wires coming down on vehicles on the highway.

Other reports were not deemed protected disclosures, although the tribunal concluded they were serious problems worthy of being reported.

These included an incident in Colby in 2014 where a significant number of customers experienced damage to electrical goods in their home. In one case, it caused a fire.

There was also a serious incident at a sub-station in Sulby involving an explosion and a fireball.

Mr Jones claimed there could have been fatalities involving two of the staff at Sulby and yet, to his knowledge, there had been no formal investigation.

The tribunal concluded he was unfairly dismissed, his whistleblowing causing such severe and untenable problems that Manx Utilities seconded him to Pulrose.