A hospitality worker was sacked from his job for raising safety issues related to the alleged exposure of Covid-19 in his workplace, Bridport Citizens Advice centre has revealed.

The charity, which has helped more than 13,500 people in Dorset with benefits and employment issues during the pandemic, assisted a hospitality worker who was dismissed for raising health and safety concerns.

The advice charity revealed it had seen cases including the case involving the man - who cannot be named due to confidentiality reasons - who was said to have been dismissed from his occupation as a hospitality worker within the Dorset Council area for raising safety issues related to the alleged impact of Covid-19 and safe working practices.

Rovarn Wickremasinghe, chief officer at Bridport Citizens Advice, said: "We helped a hospitality worker who was dismissed from work for raising safety issues related to the impact of Covid-19 and safe working practices.

"Following his dismissal he needed to apply for Universal Credit (UC), but was worried he wouldn’t get paid as he had been dismissed.

"Normally you would not be able to claim for unfair dismissal if you haven’t worked for your employer for the required continuous two-year period. However, if you are dismissed for raising health and safety concerns, under Section 100 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 - you are entitled to make a claim for unfair dismissal.

"We provided our client with information and advice about the process for submitting an application to ACAS for early conciliation and making an employment tribunal claim.

"Stopping paid work voluntarily without good reason or because of misconduct can lead to high level sanctions with new style jobseekers allowance and UC, but we helped our client challenge the sanction on the basis that his actions did not amount to misconduct because of the risks in his workplace from potential exposure to Covid-19."

A spokeswoman from Citizens Advice said the charity is unable to confirm whether a tribunal will be happening as it 'takes time to process'.

Between March 23 last year and 23 March this year, the charity helped more than 7,000 people with benefits including Universal Credit; more than 1,600 people with employment, and thousands more with other issues.

For help and advice call the charity on 0800 144 8848 or visit www.citizensadvicedorset.org.uk