A binman who sang bawdy rugby songs and sea shanties on his round was sacked when a co-worker complained about homophobic comments he made, a tribunal was told.

Des Jones was already on a warning after being accused of writing homophobic comments on work posters only a year earlier when a colleague made the complaint.

But representatives for the long-serving binman say he was not given a fair hearing because his accuser was not compelled to give evidence at a disciplinary hearing.

His representative, Stuart Bower, maintained his client was a victim of a vendetta after Mr Jones put up Ukip posters at work.

The 64-year-old, from Hollingdean in Brighton, was sacked in August last year following a disciplinary hearing into comments he made in October 2012 to a fellow co-worker, named only as TW, in a hearing held at the London South Employment Tribunal Centre in Croydon yesterday.

Among the songs that Mr Jones was said to have sung was a song called Dinah Dinah which Brian Doughty, who carried out the disciplinary hearing for Brighton and Hove City Council, told the hearing was “totally inappropriate to sing in the workplace”.

When asked if it was part of the working culture within Cityclean for staff to sing rude songs and make bawdy jokes, Mr Doughty said there “was no evidence for that at all”.

Mr Bower said that if TW did not like what Mr Jones was saying, the appropriate course of action would have been to tell him to shut up. But Mr Doughty said the comments were serious enough to merit disciplinary proceedings.

Mr Doughty said that while TW did not attend Mr Jones’ hearing, he was assured his colleague, Jan Jonker, had carried out a thorough investigation and had interviewed TW twice.

Mr Doughty added: “The whole culture of the organisation [CityClean], it was not usual for them to come forward in this way. I thought that it was not appropriate to push Mr TW to attend the hearing.”

Mr Bower said Mr Jones had more than 35 years of service without complaint until he put up a Ukip poster at work, which coincided with three complaints against him in quick succession.

Mr Doughty said he had explored the possibility of a vendetta against Mr Jones.

He said: “I made real pains in this hearing to ask Mr Jones if he thought any reason why TW had a grudge against him and he said he couldn’t.”

Mr Doughty said that he had considered the possibility of whether another written warning would have been sufficient, but he said: “I didn’t have trust and confidence that he had learned his lesson and I didn’t have trust and confidence of him in the workplace.”

The hearing is scheduled to continue until tomorrow.