Flinders University announced late Friday that an internal review had found 1,405 present and past casual staff are owed $965 000, averaging $687. There is no word on the span of payments or over how long a period they occurred.
The shortfall was caused by the university ignoring an enterprise agreement condition that staff in some roles be paid for a minimum three hours, regardless of their working a shorter shift.
The University states it identified the failing itself and has now advised the Fair Work Ombudsman and National Tertiary Education Union.
Failure to pay minimum prescribed hours has long been a common payroll fail across universities with individual enterprise agreements and Flinders states the error occurred “in the context of a complex enterprise agreement that includes a number of provisions and exceptions to the three-hour minimum engagement period.”
The university added it “has introduced stronger system controls, monitoring and oversight” and is “improving guidance and training for the relevant teams responsible.”
Flinders also anticipates any FWO response by announcing regular reviews and system checks, measures the regulator prescribes for universities that have paid staff less than the agreed rate.
However, Flinders is not regularly on the Ombudsman’s radar. It’s failing contrasts with the FWO slugging Uni NSW with a $500,000 contrition payment, (following a $213,000 Federal Court fine) after being convicted for underpaying 33,000 staff $32m over nine years.