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When a senior leader at the ABC sacked an employee who expressed a political view on social media, he disregarded warnings that it "would be worth looping in P&C" to ensure the employer's established disciplinary process was followed, the Federal Court has noted in ordering pecuniary penalties.

The chief content officer "blithely ignored the risk" that the ABC would be in contravention of its enterprise agreement, and "forged ahead with his decision to terminate", Justice Darryl Rangiah found.

As reported previously, the judge ruled in June that the broadcaster had contravened section 772(1) of the Fair Work Act when it sacked freelance journalist Antoinette Lattouf for reasons including that she held a political opinion opposing the Israeli military campaign in Gaza.

He also found it breached section 50 of the Act when it failed to comply with its enterprise agreement obligations, including by denying Lattouf the opportunity to respond to its misconduct allegations...