AUGUSTA – The Maine Human Rights Commission found Monday that there are reasonable grounds to believe Saddleback Ski Area and a Farmington electric company discriminated against a whistle-blowing electrician.

The decision came after the five-member commission heard testimony from plaintiff Robert Duggan Jr. of New Gloucester, and lawyers and representatives from Saddleback and Integrity Electric of Farmington, Commission Director Pat Ryan said Tuesday.

They found it’s reasonable to believe Duggan was fired from his job at Integrity, a Saddleback contractor, because he called the state’s electrical inspector to complain about Saddleback employees doing electrical work when they were not licensed to do so in October 2004.

His then employer informed him Saddleback officials were pushing for his dismissal because he had blown the whistle on them, according chief investigator Brenda Haskell.

The commission’s finding is not legally binding,

Duggan may, or may not, take the defendants to court, Saddleback attorney Steven Langsdorf said Tuesday.

On Saddleback’s part, Langsdorf said he thinks the commissioners went past their jurisdiction in finding reasonable grounds against the ski area. “It’swell beyond any reasonable interpretation of the Whistleblower’s Protection Act,” he said. He said the act applies only to the employee/employer relationship, and that Duggan, as the employee of a contractor, was not an employee of Saddleback.