Staff urge ABC to stop ‘racking up costs’ and drop Lattouf case

Pressure is mounting on the ABC to end its legal stoush with Antoinette Lattouf, with unionised staff issuing a renewed push for the broadcaster to drop its costly defence and settle with the sacked stand-in radio host.

The ABC has rejected Lattouf’s recent settlement request of $85,000, a public apology and reinstatement as a fill-in radio presenter, and put forward an undisclosed counter-offer.

Lattouf brought the action against the ABC after the dismissal, and the national broadcaster is defending itself.

The ABC’s union house committee is calling on management to drop its case against Antoinette Lattouf.Credit: Marija Ercegovac

The ABC’s national union house committee said union members at the broadcaster were extremely disappointed to learn management had rejected Lattouf’s “modest” settlement offer, calling on chair Kim Williams and his board to intervene should management seek to continue its defence.

“Arguing Ms Lattouf was not sacked, and then rejecting a modest early settlement offer does not look to us like model litigant behaviour and runs the risk of compounding costs, which will reduce operational and staff budgets,” the house committee said.

With the Federal Court hearing date set for February 27, members urged management to settle with Lattouf, “rather than continuing to rack up these costs and fight a staff member who did nothing wrong”.

Lattouf said “saddened and disparaged are understatements” in regard to the ABC rejecting her offer.

The ABC declined to comment, but confirmed it had proposed a counter-offer to Lattouf’s legal representatives.

Lattouf’s team has argued the ABC breached its disciplinary policies in its enterprise agreement by sacking her for reposting a Human Rights Watch post in December while presenting the Mornings show on ABC Radio Sydney for five days. The ABC says she was not sanctioned as a result of the post. In June, the Fair Work Commission found Lattouf had been sacked by the ABC.

The ABC’s total legal expenses on the case to date are unknown, with Senate questions taken on notice by managing director David Anderson in May still not available publicly.

The delay in releasing the legal expenditure figures is “totally unacceptable”, according to Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi, who put the question to Anderson during the most recent round of Senate estimates.

“The public has a right to know how much the ABC is spending to defend their sacking of journalist Antoinette Lattouf for communicating a fact which the ABC itself reported on,” Faruqi said.

Faruqi wrote to Communications Minister Michelle Rowland last week after learning the ABC had provided its response to the Senate standing committee on environment and communications, with the government still withholding the figures.

The ABC’s house committee also criticised management for not disclosing its legal fees spent to date, and for hiring Seyfarth Shaw, a US law firm known for handling legal disputes involving workers or unions, having acted for Amazon, Starbucks, and Apple in high-profile cases.

“It’s unknown, for example, how much the ABC spent in arguing the case that Ms Lattouf wasn’t even sacked – an argument completely rejected by the Fair Work Commission,” the house committee continued.

The government is processing the question on notice, with a response to be provided in due course, a spokesperson told this masthead on Tuesday afternoon.

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