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The university is alleged to have taken action to stop two casual academics from claiming payment for extra hours.
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FWO acts against Melbourne Uni over treatment of casuals
12 August 2022
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The Fair Work Ombudsman has commenced legal action against the University of Melbourne for coercing and taking untoward action against two casual academics to stop them from claiming payment for work.
The FWO said that when the alleged action occurred the two affected academics were employed on short-term casual contracts at the University of Melbourne in its Melbourne Graduate School of Education.
A University of Melbourne spokesperson said concerns of casual employee payment had arisen previously with the vice-chancellor addressing it.
"Separate to the legal matter at hand, the vice-chancellor last year apologised to past and current casual employees who had been paid less than they were due for work that they performed," said a University of Melbourne spokesperson.
It was alleged that the university had previously threatened to not re-employ the two academics in an attempt to prevent them from claiming additional payment for extra hours they had worked.
FWO alleged the academics’ supervisor said words to the effect of “if you claim outside your contracted hours, don’t expect work next year”.
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At the time of the alleged breaches by the university the two affected academics had been employed on a series of teaching contracts since 2016 and 2017 respectively.
It is alleged by the FWO that the first adverse action of threatening the academics happened in August 2020 while the second breach occurred around February 2021 when the supervisor did not offer one of the academics any further casual teaching contracts.
The FWO alleged that the decision to not offer one of the academics a contract was made after the academic had asked to be paid for several hours of work she had performed that exceeded the anticipated hours in her contract during the 2021 summer semester.
The University of Melbourne spokesperson said that the university valued all employees and would be looking at the allegations closely.
"The university is currently working to identify any practices that are inconsistent with our obligations, and doing everything we can to make full remediation and ensure we fully comply," said a University of Melbourne spokesperson.
"The university is committed to complying with all of its obligations to staff under the enterprise agreement, the university highly values all its employees including casual staff members and the significant contribution they make."
"The university has received notice of the commencement of legal proceedings overnight, and it is looking at the specific allegations very carefully and once it has considered them will respond through relevant court processes."
Fair Work Ombudsman Sandra Parker said the University of Melbourne’s alleged conduct impacted fundamental employee rights.
“We treat allegations of employers taking action to stop or prevent employees from claiming their lawful entitlements very seriously,” said Ms Parker.
“Adverse action and coercion directly undermine workplace laws and the ability of employees to exercise their lawful rights.”
The legal action comes after the FWO announced in June that addressing significant non-compliance issues in the universities sector had become one of its top priorities.
“We are currently investigating a range of underpayment issues in the universities sector, including failures to pay casual academics for all hours worked,” said Ms Parker.
The FWO is seeking penalties against the University of Melbourne for the alleged contraventions of the Fair Work Act, of which the maximum penalty per breach is $66,600.
In addition to the possible penalties, the regulator is also seeking a court order for the university to pay compensation to the two academics for losses arising from the contraventions.
The FWO said it was also currently conducting a separate investigation into the alleged underpayment of University of Melbourne casual academic employees.
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