UNSW faces a Federal Court action over alleged legal breaches on paying staff. The Fair Work Ombudsman alleges that for four years the university’s records were “so inadequate that they made it difficult to identify whether employees had been underpaid.”
The FWO’s focus is on 66 casual academic staff in the UNSW business school at the Kensington campus. In particular, the FWO alleges the university breached the FW Act between 2017 and 2022 by;
“ failing to make and keep records of hours, rates of pay and details of loadings and other entitlements owed to casual academic employees
“ failing to include lawfully required information in pay slips, such as basic information relating to pay rates and casual loading
“ failing to pay staff wages at least monthly for all hours worked. It is alleged UNSW staff were often unlawfully paid certain parts of their entitlements several weeks or even months after they actually performed the work”
The FWO states it started investigating UNSW in 2020, after the university self-reported “non-compliance” with workplace laws.
UNSW responded yesterday, it “is carefully reviewing the notice and will respond to the FWO through the appropriate legal forums.”
The university added that since 2020 it “has been progressing repayments to a significant number of impacted current and former staff and has so far repaid approximately $11 million.”
In the university’s 2022 annual report there is a $92m provision, which “includes the university’s best estimate of the expenditure required to meet the university’s obligations to current and former employees: under the 2018 enterprise agreements. … The estimate includes provision for a thorough review into historical pay practices and the possible amounts due to current and former staff, including interest, on-cost and other related costs to correct.” UNSW joins the Uni Melbourne in being pursued by the FWO in the Federal Court, but they are not the only institutions the ombudsman is watching. A year back the FWO annual report stated, “we are concerned about the allegations of systemic underpayment in many universities. Our current investigations have uncovered a trend of poor governance and management oversight, a lack of centralised human resources functions and inadequate investment in payroll and time-recording systems.”
And the Interim Report of the Universities Accord warns, “The recent instances of staff underpayment in the sector, particularly of casual and sessional academic staff, are patently unacceptable, especially for a sector funded largely by the public and that relies on its reputation to a substantial degree.”
