ABC staff warned after damning sexual harassment, bullying survey

The managing director of the ABC has issued a warning after seeing uncomfortable results of a survey looking into workplace culture.

The managing director of the ABC has admitted that the broadcaster is failing to uphold its own standards on bullying and sexual harassment.

The revelation came after an internal survey revealed that 13 per cent of respondents within the news division had experienced sexual harassment in the past two years.

Addressing the staff on Wednesday, Anderson said the survey results, which were gathered in the latter half of 2023, were unacceptable.

“If anyone doesn’t understand or accept this, then the ABC is not the working environment for them,” he told staff in an email, as reported by Nine newspapers.

“There will be consequences for those staff who are found to have behaved in an unacceptable manner, no matter what their role is at the ABC.”

The survey, conducted by the Australian National University’s Social Research Centre, revealed that a quarter of respondents reported experiencing bullying.

The most common forms of bullying included intimidation, belittling, and humiliating comments.

Out of the 745 employees who participated, 97 reported instances of sexual harassment.
The survey had a 29 per cent response rate, with 65 per cent of respondents being women.

In a separate email, news director Justin Stevens stressed that this behaviour “should not happen” at the nation’s public broadcaster and acknowledged the difficult but necessary discussions that would follow.

“To those who engage in these behaviours, it is unacceptable, and we will not tolerate it. Anyone who engages in such behaviour, or who justifies it in any way, is not welcome at the ABC,” he wrote.

The managing director of the ABC has admitted that the broadcaster is failing to uphold its own standards on bullying and sexual harassment.

The survey came after the broadcaster was embroiled in controversy over the sacking of fill-in presenter Antoinette Lattouf.

This week, the Fair Work Commission ruled that Lattouf was sacked by the national broadcaster when she was taken off air in the wake of social media posts relating to the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Ms Lattouf filed the proceedings after she was sent home for the final two days of a five-day stint on ABC Radio’s Sydney Mornings program in December last year.

In a judgment published on Monday, the Fair Work Commission found the ABC had terminated her employment, dismissing ABC’s claims to the contrary, and opening the door for her to pursue the national broadcaster in the Federal Court.

Ms Lattouf was called up to fill in for host Sarah Macdonald for five shifts starting on Monday December 18 but was told not to come in for her final shifts on Thursday and Friday that week.

She had claimed she was unlawfully terminated after sharing a post on social media by Human Rights Watch reading: “HRW reporting starvation as a tool of war.

“The Israeli government is using starvation of civilians as a weapon of war in Gaza”.

In submissions to the Fair Work Commission, Ms Lattouf’s lawyer, Mark Gibian SC argued that “the ABC expressly terminated Ms Lattouf’s employment” by calling her to a meeting on December 20 and alleging she had breached the ABC’s social media policy.

During that meeting, Ms Lattouf claims she was told that she would not complete her on-air shifts on the Thursday and Friday of that week.

“That is an express termination plainly falling within the concept of termination on the employer’s initiative,” Mr Gibian argued.

In a letter sent to ABC management and published in the Fair Work Commission judgment, Ms Lattouf claimed she was told “that Jewish lobbyists were unhappy that I was on air”.

In a statement, Ms Lattouf’s lawyer Josh Bornstein from Maurice Blackburn, welcomed the Fair Work Commission’s decision to dismiss the ABC’s attempt to strike out her unfair dismissal claim.

“We will add the claim of unlawful termination to the claim currently before the Federal Court that alleges that the ABC also violated its enterprise agreement by sacking Antoinette Lattouf without due process and without a proper basis,” Mr Bornstein said.

“If the court is satisfied that the ABC acted illegally, it has broad powers to make orders including reinstatement and compensation together with the ability to impose penalties.”