Professor Annamarie Jagose declared: “It’s imperative we pay our people correctly… It is central to our values of trust and accountability.”
Browsing: wage theft
The announcement is a major victory for the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU), which has consistently pushed for governance reform across Australian universities.
The underpayments impact an estimated 3191 staff and the recent announcement is on top of another 1000 staff members who were previously underpaid almost $700,000 in the same period.
The figure was released in the third edition of the Public Universities Wage Theft Report, compiled by the NTEU.
The NTEU has estimated that the accrued underpayment could total over $10 million, with some individuals being underpaid more than $45,000.
The underpayment affected 9743 staff members between January 2017 and December 2023.
The University of Western Australia has admitted to underpaying $6.6 million of employee superannuation after an internal review discovered that the 17% superannuation entitlement had been calculated incorrectly.
The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) has demanded “major changes to university governance” after the Swinburne University of Technology conceded to $2.85 million in wage theft between 2017 and December 2023, impacting around 1,800 staff.
Current estimations show that the wage theft has impacted more than 7,500 staff.
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.
