La Trobe University will pay 6,700 staff $10.77m in unpaid wages, plus super and interest owed over nearly seven years. Plus, it will contribute $220,000 to the Commonwealth, to demonstrate contrition. It will put procedures and policies in place to do what it is legally required to comply with workplace laws.

LT U is the latest university to be penalised for breaches of its own enterprise agreements by the Fair Work Ombudsman, following Uni Sydney, Uni Melbourne, UTS, Uni Newcastle and Charles Sturt U. The Ombudsman has also won a Federal Court case against Uni Melbourne over staff not being paid correctly and is not pursuing Uni NSW.

This case is similar to most of the predecessors, with people not paid the rate for work set out in the university’s enterprise agreement. Most of the cases involved casual academics not receiving the agreed rates for marking and teaching. “The underpayments were caused by systemic failures in compliance, central oversight and governance processes, with schools adopting differing payroll practices,” the FWO states.