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An employer breached its own enterprise agreement when it warned and then sacked an employee for posting his "provocative" views on social media, the Federal Court has found.

In 2017, the University of Sydney gave the senior lecturer a first warning over allegations he breached its code of conduct in making a number of posts on his Facebook page and Twitter account, related to media coverage of a colleague and, subsequently, the employer's threats of dismissal.

About a year later, the employee received a final warning after declining to remove a Facebook photo that depicted a colleague wearing an offensive shirt; the employer also noted it had recently become aware of an earlier post that showed a cropped Swastika superimposed over the Israeli flag.

Instead of clarifying the latter post wasn't connected to the University, as the employer requested, the employee re-posted the image...