The Fair Work Commission has ruled Antoinette Lattouf was sacked by the ABC when she was taken off-air part way through a radio presenting stint. The journalist and presenter lodged a claim for unlawful dismissal against the broadcaster after she was sent home on day three of a five-day assignment presenting at ABC Radio Sydney in December.
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TVTranscript
00:00 So this decision stems from a claim that Antoinette Latouf made earlier this year.
00:07 She was initially given a five day stint presenting or filling in at ABC Radio Sydney in December
00:13 and on day three of that stint she says she was called into a meeting with her managers
00:18 and told that she would no longer be required.
00:21 Now she says at that meeting she was told that she had breached the social media policy
00:26 because she had posted on her personal Instagram a reshare post of the Human Rights Watch.
00:33 Now this was about the war in Gaza and the post said Human Rights Watch reporting starvation
00:38 as a tool of war.
00:40 Two days later after she posted that the ABC called her into a meeting and said she'd no
00:45 longer be required.
00:47 So this decision is looking at whether or not she was actually dismissed.
00:52 The ABC argued that she wasn't dismissed because it paid her for the full five days but the
00:57 decision today is that the ABC's application there has been dismissed, that she was in
01:05 fact sacked and the reasons that were given were that she was called into that meeting,
01:11 she was told she was no longer required for those extra two days, she wasn't told that
01:15 she was going to be paid and she wasn't told about any future work and so the Fair Work
01:20 Commission has decided that was termination.
01:22 She also is pursuing the ABC in the Federal Court for unlawful termination so it's understood
01:29 that this decision gives her more ammunition for that case in that she was actually dismissed.
01:36 She is suing the ABC and asking for compensation.
01:40 She says that she was dismissed based on her race and political ideology and we are yet
01:46 to hear from Ms Latouf officially today and from the ABC but we understand that that matter
01:51 will now proceed on this basis.
01:52 [BLANK_AUDIO]