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Monash University ’ s Clayton campus . Photo : supplied
I think this stuff ’ s just the tip of the iceberg .
Casual concerns
Monash again accused of wage theft by staff .
By Conor Burke
Monash University is again at the centre of a wage theft scandal as it admits to underpaying professional staff this year .
Earlier this year Monash made a voluntary disclosure to the Fair Work Ombudsman that between January 1 2014 and 30 June 2020 sessional tutors were underpaid by $ 8.6 million .
At the time , Monash VC Margaret Gardner said the underpayments were accidental and that the uni had “ changed the whole system as to how we are recording what people are doing ” to “ avoid future confusion ”.
However , in mid-November staff at the Monash Education Academy ( MEA ) were notified that they had been underpaid this year .
In an email , seen by Campus Review , with the subject line ‘ Payment adjustment ’, Monash told a staff member at the MEA that the uni was advised in September 2021 that staff had been paid incorrectly and as a result it undertook a review of all casual payments made to MEA staff in 2021 .
Monash is already in the process of repaying staff affected .
NTEU Monash branch president Ben Eltham said he believes that this is further evidence of systemic wage theft that it is still rife at Monash .
The NTEU has also had reports that Monash library staff have not been paid penalty rates in recent weeks .
“ I think this stuff ’ s just the tip of the iceberg ; it certainly is at Monash . The whole system is based on casualised labour . And we know casuals are the most vulnerable to this kind of activity ,” he told Campus Review .
Eltham and the NTEU question the governance and risk management policies at Monash and say that a number of high profile figures with roles at the university have a lot to answer for .
The NTEU points out that Monash did not mention any underpayments in its last annual report for 2020 , released this year . They also question whether the uni misled a senate select committee .
“ We know that Monash first became aware of this issue in 2019 and that they started their audit in early 2020 . And that in September 2020 , they wrote to a Senate committee and said , ‘ There ’ s no wage theft going on at Monash ’,” Eltham said .
“ I think there ’ s lots of questions to be asked .”
The NTEU wants the university to be more transparent with the process of auditing underpayments and said that Monash refused to release a copy or further details of the payroll audit that confirms the $ 8.6 million figure . Meanwhile , Eltham said that the union has made several requests to meet with Monash Provost , Professor Sue Elliott , to no avail .
“ We ’ ve asked for further information , things like how many staff members were underpaid ? How many units were taught by teachers who were underpaid ? How many actual underpayments were there ? They won ’ t tell us that ,” Eltham said .
In recent months both the University of Sydney and The University of Melbourne were found to have underpaid staff by $ 13 million and $ 9.5 million respectively .
And another 12 universities across the nation have been , or are in the process of being , audited for systemic underpayment .
A Monash University spokesperson told Campus Review that there has been no formal written complaint about underpayment of library staff and they have asked the union to provide details of the issue .
“ On 9 September 2021 , the university was made aware of an isolated pay issue affecting casual professional staff in 2021 in the Student Academic Success unit of the Monash Education Academy . We immediately conducted a review of payments for all casual staff who worked in this area in 2021 ,” the spokesperson added .
“ This review has been completed . Of the total 19 casuals who work in this area , nine casuals were identified as being incorrectly paid due to errors in submitting timesheets . With the errors resolved , affected staff have been back paid an additional total gross amount of approximately $ 16,000 . All staff should now have received their back pay . “ We value the role of all our staff at Monash University and we are dedicated to investigating any complaints raised in a rapid and timely manner .”
Eltham believes that once you start digging , there is no telling how widespread this issue could be .
“ It ’ s really , really serious . The universities are in denial about it . Monash is a good example .” ■
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