ON CAMPUS campusreview . com . au
‘ Great concern ’
Picture : David Geraghty / NCA NewsWire .
University of Melbourne faces legal action .
By Emilie Lauer
The University of Melbourne will face legal action over allegations of underpaying casual staff and keeping false or misleading records .
In February , The Fair Work Ombudsman announced the university would be taken to federal court over claims it failed to pay 14 casual academics .
Staff are allegedly owed a total of more than $ 154,000 , with individuals owed between about $ 930 and more than $ 30,140 .
The academics are believed to have been underpaid between February 2017 and December 2019 .
The ombudsman said the university allegedly paid staff for marking students ’ work based on “ benchmarks ”, rather than their enterprise agreements .
A university spokesperson said they were improving their payroll and time-recording systems .
“ The university has publicly acknowledged and apologised to past and current employees who had been paid less than they were due for work that they had performed ,” they told Campus Review .
“ Separate to the proceedings , the university is working very hard on its remediation program , which has been underway for two years .
The FWO has alleged the university paid casuals working in the art ’ s faculty based on benchmarks that varied depending on the area with payments ranging from “ 4,000 words per hour ” or “ one hour per student ”.
Staff then allegedly had to report their hours worked according to the benchmark rather than the actual hours they spent marking students ’ papers .
Fair Work has alleged that management knew about the practice and recorded false or misleading timesheets .
The employment watchdog said the enterprise agreement breaches were ‘ serious contraventions ’ under the Fair Work Act 2017 .
The university faces penalties of up to $ 630,000 per breach .
Fair Work Ombudsman Sandra Parker wrote in a statement that the court action showed ‘ why ’ the tertiary education sector was under scrutiny .
“ Allegations of universities underpaying their employees by systematically failing to follow their own enterprise agreements are of great concern ,” Ms Parker said .
“ It is important that where we find alleged serious contraventions we take
It is important that where we find alleged serious contraventions we take employers to court .
employers to court and seek penalties to deter non-compliance .
“ Universities , like all employers , should have proactive measures in place to ensure they are meeting workplace laws and paying employees correctly for all hours worked .”
National Tertiary Education Union president Dr Alison Barnes said Australia needs federal laws that criminalise wage theft with “ strong penalties for the most egregious cases .”
“ We have been warning about the scourge of systemic wage theft in our sector for years ,” Dr Barnes said .
Nearly 15,000 casual staff from the university were back paid $ 22m last year after an analysis of payslip records highlighted underpayment by the university over an eight-year period .
Fair Work also launched separate ongoing legal action against Melbourne University in August 2022 after it allegedly threatened two casuals who tried to claim extra hours . ■
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