James Cook University (JCU) has self-reported to the Fair Work Ombudsman after finding “evidence of historical compliance concerns” regarding the payment of their casual employees.
Current estimations show that the wage theft has impacted more than 7,500 staff.
JCU will create a “project team” to conduct a review across their various branches in Queensland, and have attributed the underpayment to “issues with its payroll systems and processes”.
In response to questions about the nature of the internal process, a spokesperson for JCU told Honi, “It is still too early in the review process for us to provide further details such as the number of staff affected and when remediation will be paid.”
The spokesperson said that “impacted staff can be reassured that remediation is a priority for the University.”
The university has been complicit in underpayment in recent years. In 2022, it was identified that JCU had underpaid $1 million worth of superannuation benefits over eleven years, impacting 2,000 staff members.
In response, the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) has called for a “national overhaul of university governance,” with this recent admission occurring amidst a national total of $170 million in wage theft in the tertiary sector in recent years.
Dr. Jonathan Strauss, NTEU Branch President for JCU, said in a statement that “JCU is a major employer in Cairns and Townsville. It’s critical that the entire community has faith the university is paying staff, particularly their lowest paid staff, properly.”
“It’s essential that every cent owed to JCU staff is paid back in full.”
The NTEU Queensland Secretary, Michael McNally, expressed that the admission exposed “deep systemic problems” in the sector.
“Major reform through the Universities Accord response,” McNally said, “needs to be implemented for the sector to recover from the prevalence of wage theft in higher education.”
Honi spoke with Dr. Jonathan Strauss, who told Honi that “in working with management, the NTEU is looking forward to all potential problems [with underpayment] being considered.”
The latest admission of contract non-compliance for minimum hours worked, occurring amidst a constellation of historical contract problems, “indicate that the problem is with the whole system,” pointing to the broader trend of mass casualisation within universities.
The NTEU JCU branch will meet in the coming days to understand the scale of the problem and organise the union’s response.
