Antoinette Lattouf has won her case for unlawful termination against the ABC, with the public broadcaster ordered to pay her $70,000 in compensation.
The casual radio host and Palestine advocate was hired for a week-long stint on ABC Radio Sydney‘s Mornings program in December 2023.
Ms Lattouf, 41, was let go after sharing a Human Rights Watch post that said Israel was using starvation as a ‘weapon of war’ in Gaza.
The ABC claimed it took Ms Lattouf off the air because she failed to follow a direction not to post about Israel or the war in Gaza during her five-day shift.
But Justice Darryl Rangiah, who delivered his judgement in Sydney’s Federal Court on Wednesday morning, disagreed.
He found the ABC contravened the Fair Work Act by terminating Ms Lattouf’s employment ‘for reasons including that she held a political opinion opposing the Israeli military campaign in Gaza’.
Justice Rangiah ordered the ABC to pay Ms Lattouf compensation of $70,000, with the public broadcaster potentially on the hook to pay her legal costs too.
‘I have found that the ABC contravened s 772(1) of the FWA by terminating Ms Lattouf’s employment for reasons including that she held political opinions opposing the Israeli military campaign in Gaza,’ Justice Rangiah ruled.
Antoinette Lattouf has won her case for unlawful termination against the ABC, with the public broadcaster ordered to pay her $70,000 in compensation
Ms Lattouf arrived at court wearing a $1,119 coat by Sydney designer Rebecca Vallance and flanked by her legal team and her high-flying retail strategist husband, Danny (he is pictured, second from left)
However, Justice Rangiah rejected Ms Lattouf’s ‘allegations that the reasons for her termination included her race or national extraction’.
Ms Lattouf reportedly burst into tears and hugged her lawyers and husband after the judgement was delivered.
She had arrived at court wearing a $1,119 coat by Sydney designer Rebecca Vallance and flanked by her legal team and her high-flying retail strategist husband, Danny.
More to come.
