A new payment system adopted by Griffith University failed to pay casual workers on March 7 leading to a dispute with the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU).
The system requires employees to agree on timetables and then submit fortnightly timesheets documenting their hours. New layers of approval have also been introduced to verify the timesheets.
Many casual employees did not receive their contracted timetables by March 7th and therefore were unable to submit timesheets for approval. Those casuals did not receive any pay.
According to a report by the NTEU in November 2023, Griffith University has been responsible for $2,566,655 worth of wage theft since 2014, which has impacted 664 staff members.
NTEU Queensland Secretary Michael McNally said in a statement that after an emergency meeting with impacted staff the union spoke with senior management.
The University has agreed that “any casual staff member who has not been paid today because they could not apply for payment will be reimbursed for any financial hardship caused or exacerbated by their non-payment,” McNally said.
The University also agreed to send out a message to all impacted staff to inform them of the issue.
Libby Meyer, a casual academic who teaches music, said the delay in payment “has caused stress and financial pressure that should never have occurred while supposedly employed by the university.”
Meyer also said that she felt “disrespected” for having to ask when she will be paid.
Another casual academic, Scott Patterson, who teaches sociology and migration law, said that the administrative mistake has “forced people who have had regular deductions from bank accounts for rent, mortgages, day care, child support, school fees etc. into overdraft.”
“I am now relying on charity for cheap groceries, friends to pay for petrol so I can actually get to work, and [my] family have paid my rent. I am one of the lucky ones.”
