The University of Melbourne has admitted to multiple breaches of the Fair Work Act and been ordered by a federal judge to pay $75,000 after threatening to punish two casual academics for working outside their contracted hours.
The Fair Work Ombudsman pursued the case against the university.
According to court documents, a supervisor told a casual staff member in August 2020 “if you claim outside your contracted hours don’t expect work next year.”
The same supervisor told another staff member that a causal was a “self-entitled Y-genner” on a “crusade behind the scenes.”
One of the staff members was not re-employed by the university after their contract expired.
Under the Fair Work Act, it is unlawful for an employer to take adverse action against an employee because they exercised a workplace right.
Federal Court judge Craig Dowling found that workers were entitled to make complaints to a supervisor without fear of retaliation if they felt they could not fulfil their obligations within their contracted hours.
The judge noted in his ruling that there has been a 89% increase in casual and fixed term employees in the tertiary sector between 2010 and 2021. Two thirds of all employees are employed insecurely.
The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) claims the University of Melbourne leads the sector in wage theft with $45 million in underpayments in recent years.
In a statement, NTEU National President Dr Alison Barnes criticised the heavy casualisation of higher education.
“This is yet another damning example of what the explosion in insecure work means for staff on the ground,” she said.
“A $75,000 fine is welcome, but shocking incidents like this will keep happening unless there’s major changes to universities’ broken governance model.”
Fair Work Ombudsman Anna Booth condemned the violations.
“There is zero place for adverse action in our workplaces,” she said.
“Adverse action directly undermines workplace laws and the ability of employees to exercise their lawful rights – and this is unacceptable.”
Booth said that the Fair Work Commission was investigating other universities nationally for their failure to pay casual workers.
“The university sector is a regulatory priority for the agency,”
