Australia’s top university has been hit with a $32 million rectification bill by the Fair Work Ombudsman after underpaying staff members from 2014 to 2023.
As part of an enforceable undertaking following a seven year investigation by the FWO, the organisation admitted to failing to pay 33,069 former and current staff members correct rates.
Whilst the FWO found that underpaid wages and entitlement exceeded $23 million, the total bill takes into account $4.9 million worth of interest and $4.1 million worth of superannuation back pay across 33,069 underpaid staff, owing almost $400,000 to one person.
Shortcomings spanned across wages, overtime, allowances, shift loadings and long service leave, with affected staff primarily consisting of casual academics and a smaller group of laboratory, administrative, research, technical and library staff.
Activities such as lectures, tutorials, course coordination meetings, marking and exam supervision constituted the majority of tasks where staff were not paid the correct minimum wage rate.
Underpaid staff worked across UNSW’s Sydney and Canberra Campuses, as well as in regional sites such as Albury, Coffs Harbour, Griffith, Port Macquarie and Wagga Wagga.
The investigation began in 2018 after a casual academic in the Business School reported the underpayment to the FWO.
After a review found that the practice was widespread, UNSW willingly cooperated with the FWO and self-reported underpayments two years later, however the watchdog found that the university’s payroll and record keeping practices were so poor it could not be verified.
Fair Work then launched legal action against UNSW in 2023 for record-keeping breaches related to 63 casual academics who worked in the Business School, leading to a ruling by the Federal Circuit and Family Court in January that the university pay a penalty rate of $213,120.
In response to the court ruling in January, a UNSW spokesperson said that the organisation has “implemented significant changes to strengthen the payroll and record-keeping governance, clarify pay codes, improve training for managers and administrators, and upgrade systems to support accurate time reporting”.
Due to the previous court ruling and the treatment of university compliance as a stated enforcement and investigative priority by the FWO, UNSW entered into an enforceable undertaking, which is a written agreement between someone and the FWO who has not followed a workplace law.
UNSW’s Vice Chancellor Atilla Brungs has issued an apology in a statement to those affected by the underpayments.
“While we cannot change what occurred, we have worked hard to understand why it happened, forensically identify historical incidents and continue to repay what is owed,” he said.
“Signing this undertaking is an important milestone but not the end of our work.”
As part of the enforceable undertaking, UNSW must collaborate with staff and unions through a Joint Consultative Committee, commission at least two independent compliance audits and report to the FWO until their remediation program is complete.
The agreement makes UNSW the 13th university to enter into an enforceable undertaking with the FWO since 2022 for underpaying staff, with some other institutions including the University of Sydney, UTS, Griffith university and the University of Melbourne.
Director at Australian Business Lawyers and Advisors Julian Arndt told HRD in January that the underpayments are a result of a lack of systems put in place that help regulate the complex practicalities of paying a large workforce who perform a range of tasks and require differing rates, as opposed to intentional malice.
Fair Work Ombudsman Anna Booth says that “UNSW deserves credit for committing significant time and resources to put in place corrective measures that will ensure both full remediation of impacted staff and improved compliance for the future.”