The Fair Work Commission has found award-winning journalist and presenter Antoinette Lattouf was fired by the ABC  when she was taken off-air part way through a radio presenting stint.

Lattouf lodged a claim for unlawful dismissal against the ABC after she was dropped from an ABC Radio Sydney fill-in presenting slot three days into a five-day assignment in December.

Her submission to the FWC claimed the ABC told her she breached the organisation’s social media policy after she posted content from Human Rights Watch regarding the war in Gaza on her personal social media account.

ABC claimed Lattouf’s employment was not terminated because she was paid for the full five days.

The FWC has rejected that argument on Monday and found Lattouf’s employment was terminated by her managers during a meeting on December 20.

Lattouf is now free to pursue an unlawful termination in the Federal Court.

On December 20, Lattouf said she was summoned to a meeting with three managers who told her she had breached the organisation’s social media policy.

The ABC on Monday reported that in his ruling, FWC deputy president Gerard Boyce said the ABC did not tell Lattouf in that meeting that she would be paid for the full five days.

Boyce said the ABC’s conduct in the December 20 meeting made clear her employment was terminated.

“The Applicant was not allocated any further or other work to perform, and she was asked to politely leave (sooner rather than later) the ABC premises,” he said.

An ABC spokesman in December said in a statement that Lattouf, a casual presenter, “will not be back on air for her remaining two shifts this week”.

Lattouf responded to her sudden employment termination on social media.

“I am very disappointed by the ABC’s decision today,” she wrote on Wednesday.

“I believe I was terminated unlawfully. This is not a win for journalism or critical, fair thinking.

-more to come