The intriguing thing about yesterday’s meeting of SBS staff is that some people in management were entertaining the idea that Mary Kostakidis may actually return to the network.

Along with all the usual dire warnings about the consequences of talking to the press, SBS boss Shaun Brown told the troops that management would meet with Kostakidis this morning and then issue a statement about whether she would be returning.

With barrister Julian Burnside in her corner and the writs flying, this looks very unlikely.

As one insider said yesterday, “No-one expects her to come back.”

Details emerged yesterday about Kostakidis’s complaints against the network, especially allegations that SBS had breached clauses in her contract ensuring some editorial control over news bulletins. The apparent dysfunction of the on-air relationship with co-presenter Stan Grant was also laid bare.

However, it’s also apparent that this is just one indication of the unhappiness at SBS. Staff talk of the morale being at “rock bottom” as the network becomes increasingly hard-nosed on industrial relations.

Insiders complain that they are being forced on to workplace agreements and that the management seems to have “no respect for staff.”

“You don’t have a choice between AWAs and a collective agreement. It’s the AWA or nothing,” one employee told Crikey. “They may deny it but its bullsh-t.”

With growing insecurity over jobs and a sense that the place is being dumbed down, some staff describe the network’s management as “appalling”.