Antoinette Lattouf has won her unlawful termination case against the ABC, with Justice Darryl Rangiah delivering a judgment that found the national broadcaster breached the Fair Work Act when it removed her as the fill-in host of a radio program in December 2023.
Justice Rangiah found that the national broadcaster did terminate Lattouf’s employment contract for reasons including that she held political opinions opposing the Israeli military campaign in Gaza.
According to the judgment, the ABC has contravened sections 50 and 772 of the Fair Work Act.
“The respondent, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (the ABC) contravened s772(1) of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (the FWA) by terminating the employment of the applicant, Antoinette Lattouf, for reasons including that she held a political opinion opposing the Israeli military campaign in Gaza,” Rangiah wrote in the judgment.
The ABC must pay Lattouf $70,000 in compensation for “non-economic loss”.
However, the court found that Lattouf was not terminated because of her race or national extraction.
The judgment comes after Lattouf claimed her employment as a fill-in host on ABC Radio Sydney in December 2023 was unfairly terminated based on her political opinion and race.
Lattouf was taken off air three days into a five-day casual stint as an ABC Radio Sydney presenter in December 2023. It came after she reposted a Human Rights Watch post on social media that said Israel was using starvations as a “weapon of war” in Gaza.
The ABC claimed it took Lattouf off the air because she failed to follow instructions not to post about Israel or Gaza. However Lattouf claimed her supervisor, Elizabeth Green, said she could post facts from reputable sources.
In June last year, the Fair Work Commission found she was sacked by the ABC, which paved the way for the case to go to the federal court.
During the trial, a number of the ABC’s top executives gave evidence, including former ABC chair Ita Buttrose. The ABC denied it was influenced by the email-writing campaign from members of a pro-Israel group who complained about Lattouf’s role on-air.
In a statement, Lattouf’s lawyer Josh Bornstein said it had been a “long and arduous struggle for our courageous client”.
“The ABC has fought every step of the way, spending more than $1 million of taxpayer’s money. Antoinette Lattouf offered to settle the case for $85,000 in August 2024, but the ABC rejected the offer,” Bornstein said in a statement.
“When organisations capitulate to bad faith complaints against staff, the results are often perverse. The ABC claimed that it sacked our client because she highlighted a Human Rights Watch report that was already being reported on by the ABC.”
Bornstein said they would be asking for a “significant penalty” for the ABC.
“The Federal Court will hold a hearing to determine whether the ABC will face penalties for its unlawful conduct. We will ask the court for a significant penalty in order to deter the ABC from repeating its illegal conduct in the future,” he said.
“It has been a privilege to represent Antoinette Lattouf in this important case about corporate cancel culture.”