Fight erupts between union and ABC’s head of news

The ABC’s new head of news Simon Robinson is staring down the barrel of a staff revolt just four weeks into joining the public broadcaster, with its union committee labelling a threat of disciplinary action against a senior journalist an attack on press freedom.

The ABC’s Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance house committee called an urgent meeting for its members on Monday after Michael Slezak, who is also the federal president of the union, was threatened with disciplinary action over a piece he wrote in The Australian Financial Review.

Robinson, who joined the ABC as director of news last month, called Slezak into a meeting last week to raise concerns over his conduct, an email from the union to its members alleges.

Robinson and national and digital news boss Lee Glendinning said he may have breached the ABC’s external work policy and code of conduct over the article, which advocated against plans to limit publicly available information about company directors in Australia.

In the piece, Slezak said that ASIC and its chief executive Mark Rigotti was using the Bondi terror attack as a “shield” to help push forward changes to an issue it has long pushed for, access to personal information of prominent company directors.

The pair refused to rule out the possibility of disciplinary action or dismissal, the email sent out to about 1000 union members on Monday said. The union has called a meeting of members for Tuesday and called on ABC management to rule out action on Slezak and ensure union representatives can undertake legitimate advocacy in future “without intimidation or reprisal”.

Any attempts to intimidate elected staff representatives “must be met with a collective response from the members they represent”, the email said.

The ABC has strict rules that demand its staff follow an external work request process.

However, the union says that Slezak had a pre-existing written agreement with the broadcaster that predated Robinson’s arrival, which permitted him to engage in public comment on behalf of journalists, as part of his senior and public role with the MEAA.

Robinson joined the ABC last month following the exit of Justin Stevens in May. Robinson joined from news agency Reuters where he was the outlet’s second most senior editor globally.

Robinson and the ABC were approached for comment. Slezak and the union were also approached for comment.

The article in question was published by the AFR last Monday. In it, Slezak argued against proposed changes to the corporate regulator, ASIC, which would limit the amount of public information made available about company directors.

“The ABC cannot publicly champion press freedom while privately targeting a national union representative for doing the same thing,” the union’s ABC house committee said.

“What message does targeting the highest profile ABC union member, by the biggest media organisation in the country, send to union members, delegates and journalists across newsrooms across the country?

“Our union representatives are elected to advocate for us. They cannot do their jobs if they are only permitted to say things with which their employers agree. The ABC’s targeting of Michael is an attack on press freedom and an attack on our freedom of association.”

The ABC has had a tense relationship with its unionised staff over the past 12 months as a drawn-out enterprise agreement bargaining process led to its first strike in two decades. Union representatives and management clashed at several points throughout the process, before an agreement was finally struck in March shortly after a staff walk-out.

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