ABC in race row with unionised staff on court application
Hundreds of unionised ABC staff passed a resolution on Thursday demanding the national broadcaster acknowledge that Lebanese, Arab and Middle Eastern people can be subject to racial discrimination.
Hundreds of unionised ABC staff passed a resolution on Thursday demanding the national broadcaster acknowledge that Lebanese, Arab and Middle Eastern people can be subject to racial discrimination – despite the fact that the publicly funded media organisation had already clarified its stance on the matter, as it pertains to the law.
The feud arose after a paragraph in the ABC’s written application in the unfair dismissal case brought by freelance journalist Antoinette Lattouf stated: “Whether there is a Lebanese, Arab, or Middle Eastern ‘race’ is a complex multi-faceted question of fact. The facts must be proved. Ms Lattouf has led no evidence of any relevant fact.”
On the first day of Lattouf’s case on Monday, her barrister, Oshie Fagir, seized on the clause, querying whether the ABC would not accept Lattouf’s claim she was the victim of racial discrimination because she had not proven being Lebanese, Middle Eastern or Arab was a race.
On Wednesday, the ABC’s barrister, Ian Neil, SC, told the court: “The ABC does not deny the existence of any race. I repeat, the ABC does not deny the existence of any race.
“The point being made there is that this is an issue in respect of which the applicant has an onus, and she has not equipped the court with any evidence upon which to resolve that issue.
“There is no evidence consistent with the hypothesis that race or national extraction had anything to do with any matter under consideration in these proceedings.”
On Thursday, before unionised staff called a meeting at which the passed the aforementioned resolution, the ABC’s head of people and culture, Deena Amorelli, sent an all-staff email to further clarify the organisation’s stance on race.
“On Monday, Ms Lattouf’s legal team made submissions that may have been interpreted, by some staff and commentators, as suggesting the ABC denies that certain races exist. I want to assure you that the ABC is not of that view.
“The ABC denies that any action was taken against Ms Lattouf because of her political opinion, race or national extraction. The ABC has only raised the issue that, in these proceedings, the legal onus lies with Ms Lattouf to establish her claim about race.”
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