A casual academic has received compensation and a public apology in Federal Court after the University of Melbourne admitted she was unfairly refused work after asking for increased hours.
The academic was allocated 12 hours a week for casual support work, but requested 5 more hours a week to complete her tasks.
She was refused further work on February 9 2021 after the request was made.
The refusal followed an August 2020 meeting where a supervisor told the casual that “if you claim outside your contracted hours, don’t expect work next year.”
The Fair Work Ombudsmans took the University to Federal Court, arguing the University took adverse actions against the casual for exercising her rights under the Fair Work Act.
The parties agreed to a penalty of $37,295. The casual and another worker have already been compensated by the university.
Represented by barrister Richard Dalton KC, the university admitted fault in court today and acknowledged the process of evaluating the workload of casuals was insufficient. Dalton also said the university had implemented several reforms targeting how casuals were overseen to prevent similar issues in the future.
Dalton argued that there is no evidence to suggest the supervisor intentionally violated the Fair Work Act, but rather that it was a mistake caused by assuming the employee had adequate time to complete their tasks.
Fiona Knowles, representing the ombudsman, told the court the threat to terminate the employment of the casuall was menacing and created a hostile work environment.
In a separate Federal Court action, the ombudsman is alleging another 14 casual academics were underpaid between February 2017 and December 2019.
The total underpayments are alleged to be $154,424 with each staff member possibly entitled to between $927 and $30,140.
