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Newcastle and Charles Sturt short-changed over 10,000 casual and full-time staff for years.
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Two unis forced to back-pay staff more than $9m
31 August 2022
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Two universities have been forced to back-pay more than $9 million to over 10,000 staff who were underpaid between 2014 and this year.
The University of Newcastle (UON) found it had underpaid 7,595 employees a total of $6,269,241 during an audit it began after realising it had short-changed casual staff by $64,600.
Individual underpayments ranged up to $65,449 and after the university self-reported to the FWO, it is now subject to an enforceable undertaking that requires it to meet all known underpayments plus $171,000 in superannuation and over $1,375,000 in interest by 31 October.
Underpaid employees included casual, full-time and part-time staff, and UON said they were the result of deficiencies in its payroll systems relating to interactions between overtime, allowances and penalty rates; and incorrect application of clauses in enterprise agreements.
Vice-chancellor Professor Alex Zelinsky said the university would be vigilant to ensure a similar incident did not happen again.
“The university has entered into an enforceable undertaking with the Fair Work Ombudsman related to its underpayments that were identified in early 2020,” said Professor Zelinsky.
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“We are committed to improving our training and systems to ensure all staff know their entitlements and are paid correctly.”
Charles Sturt University (CSU) also self-reported to the FWO after finding it had breached enterprise agreements between 2015 to 2022 when it underpaid 2,526 casual staff a total of $3,237,390.
Individual underpayments ranged up to $58,229 and the FWO’s enforceable undertaking means CSU must pay the shortfalls plus over $628,000 in interest as well as $476,000 in superannuation by February 2023.
CSU discovered the underpayments after it commissioned an external review of staff payments due to heightened concerns over the issue.
The university’s breaches included failures to provide minimum engagement hours and underpayment for casual staff, failure to pay PhD qualified academics a higher rate and failure to pay for preparation time for lectures and tutorials.
CSU said it was working to improve its systems but focused first on paying back staff.
“The university’s main priority through this process has been ensuring all impacted staff receive their owed money,” said the statement.
“We encourage any past or present staff members who believe they may have been impacted to utilise our website and call centre.
“Identifying and implementing procedural improvements to ensure ongoing wage compliance is another of the university’s priorities in this process. This work is on track.”
Fair Work Ombudsman Sandra Parker said that both universities had cooperated and provided assurance of commitment to full back payments.
“Under these enforceable undertakings, in addition to making full back payments, these public universities must implement stringent measures including systems improvements and training to ensure ongoing future compliance for the benefit of all their workers,” said Ms Parker.
“University of Newcastle and Charles Sturt University have shown a clear commitment to acknowledging and fixing the various errors that existed in their systems and practices, and which they should have picked up.
“Both universities self-disclosed possible contraventions and then worked openly with the FWO on appropriate calculation and remediation methods.”
As part of the enforceable undertakings with the FWO, both UON and CSU need to provide evidence of their system and training improvements to address the issues that led to underpayments and also establish complaints and review mechanisms for employees.
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