Sacked SBS Journo Has The Right To Sue: Fair Work Commission

Sacked SBS Journo Has The Right To Sue: Fair Work Commission
ERIN MARY Doyle
By ERIN MARY Doyle



SBS employee who tweeted anti-ANZAC rant on ANZAC day has won the right to sue the broadcaster in the Fair Work Commission, with the industrial umpire citing freedom of speech.

Scott McIntyre, a former football reporter for SBS, used the 100th anniversary of Gallipoli to launch into a somewhat bizarre and offensive vitriolic rant against Australia’s war history.

Yesterday, The Fair Work Commission rejected SBS’s bid to block McIntyre’s unfair dismissal case.

Fair Work Commissioner Ian Cambridge said the “public controversy” around McIntyre’s firing had “understandably introduced an elevated level of tension between the parties”.

“In simple terms, I believe that the [Fair Work] Act … should not be interpreted in a manner which would deprive an individual of access to a fair hearing or, as may be euphemistically described, a person’s ‘day in court’,” Mr Cambridge wrote.

“It is perhaps sadly ironic that many members of the Australian Defence Force lost their lives in the earnest pursuit of the protection of rights and freedoms such as the access to a fair hearing which the applicant is entitled to obtain.”

The case will be heard at a later date.

B&T contacted SBS who declined to comment




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