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Red handed
Australia ’ s top university caught up in wage scandal .
By Wade Zaglas
Australia ’ s top-ranked university
is repaying more than 1,500 academics in an underpayment scandal involving four faculties .
The National Tertiary Education Union ’ s national president Dr Alison Barnes called the revelations about the University of Melbourne “ diabolical ” and “ systemic ”, with other top-tier universities allegedly engaging in similar conduct .
“ The University of Melbourne faces a series of backpay claims for unpaid wages of at least half a million , ranging well into the millions of dollars ,” Barnes said .
The scandal , which was revealed by the ABC , found that casual academic staff at the university were being paid “ piece rates ” for marking student assessments rather than the full amount required under their enterprise agreement . They were also expected to mark student assessments in three minutes .
Some staff were also required to attend tutorials for which they were not properly remunerated . This happened due to the university reclassifying ‘ tutorials ’ to ‘ practice classes ’, despite the work being the same , and slashing wages by up to a third .
The wage theft at the University of Melbourne spanned four faculties ( Arts , Fine Arts and Music , Science , and
Engineering ) and the university has admitted liability in each . It was also revealed by the ABC investigation that pay claims went back as far as six years .
“ The key driver of wage theft is casual and insecure employment , which is absolutely rife at Australian universities ,” Barnes said .
“ Approximately seven in 10 university workers are insecurely employed , creating a fertile environment for exploitation .
“ Unions need far better access to records including for former employees and nonmembers . And we need the right to inspect those records quickly , without having to wait 24 hours ,” she said .
“ Australian universities should also be compelled to report accurate figures on casual and limited contract employment . This would provide a much clearer picture of which university employees are likely to be exploited .”
Although the university ’ s latest annual report lists $ 4.43 billion in reserves , a significant portion of its staff – 72.9 per cent – are experiencing insecure work .
FACULTY OF ARTS STAFF OWED MILLIONS
615 tutors from the university were sent letters by the university to lodge their claims . The first tranche of workers to receive communication were tutors still employed at the university , including history tutor Shan Windscript .
For two years Windscript coordinated a “ grassroots fightback ” to change the conditions for casual employees in the sector .
“ We have to work multiple jobs just to survive . Meanwhile , we have our vice-chancellor getting paid twice as much as the Prime Minister ,” she told the ABC .
“ A lot of our casuals are single-parent carers , migrant workers in vulnerable positions .”
Under the “ piece rate ” wage , Windscript alleges she was underpaid $ 11,000 for her marking .
While the university terminated the rate last month as part of the FWA negotiation , Windscript feels “ betrayed ” and “ angry ” and added that insecure employment has taken a heavy toll on her and others in the same situation .
“ Like many precarious workers , I have been struggling with chronic and recurrent mental health issues over the years since I entered the university as a PhD student ,” she said .
Engineering , science and fine arts tutors have also been affected by the underpayments . The university has already repaid roughly 425 engineering students $ 99,000 “ who were not paid for marking that the faculty said should have been completed during tutorials ”, the ABC said .
Faculty of Fine Arts and Music staff at the university will also receive letters offering to rectify underpayments for marking that applied the same fixed “ piece rate ”.
The University of Melbourne declined an interview with the ABC , but a spokesperson confirmed it was working in a collaborative way with the NTEU to rectify the situation .
IS WAGE THEFT OCCURRING AT OTHER UNIVERSITIES ?
After receiving wage theft allegations from the NTEU , another of Australia ’ s top universities – The University of Western Australia – told the ABC that it employed “ an outside organisation to audit its pay rates ”.
Meanwhile , the national broadcaster was told that Macquarie University had repaid $ 50,000 to casual staff in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics after similar negotiations with the union .
The University of New South Wales is reportedly conducting an audit after receiving complaints about its Business School . The university has also alerted the Fair Work Ombudsman of the complaints .
A UNSW spokesperson told the ABC that some payments had already been made to underpaid staff , while others are in the pipeline . In addition , “ the university is conducting a wage theft audit after an NTEU survey of casual academic staff revealed concerns regarding the payment of wages ”.
“ We have made additional payments to all identified staff to rectify any errors . The university is now conducting a review into all payments made to casual academic staff in the Business School back to January 2014 , assisted by external experts from a large accounting firm ( Deloitte ),” the spokesperson said .
“ We also plan to undertake a review of all other faculties to identify any similar issues .” ■
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