Over 97,000 university staff have been underpaid by almost $159 million (US$104 million) since 2014, a report by the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) has found.
The most recent NTEU Wage Theft report revealed that 97,281 university employees have been underpaid $158,711,178 across 32 universities.
Victoria tops the list with $75 million in underpayments, followed by New South Wales (NSW) at $65 million, and Tasmania at $11 million.
NTEU National President Alison Barnes said the “shocking” numbers demand government intervention.
“We need urgent action from all governments to reform the governance model for universities and protect workers from exploitation,” she said.
She explained that state and federal governments should limit casual university staff positions, arguing that casualisation contributes to exploitation.
“If universities are to finally become exemplary employers, then we need to end the scourge of casualisation using state and federal powers, including funding,” she said.
“With two-thirds of university staff in casual or fixed-term employment, not tackling this is a massive risk for the future of higher education.”
Nevertheless, she attributed the crisis to highly paid vice-chancellors who are not held to account and said the lack of leadership resulted in devastating consequences for university staff.
“It can mean struggling to make ends meet, being unable to afford to pay bills, or being forced to take on additional work,” she said.
“We have employees struggling to pay rent and feed their children,” she told ABC radio.
NTEU noted that wage theft came in many forms.
“It includes being paid for fewer hours than the work takes, paying piece rates for marking or lecture preparation instead of the actual time worked and sham contracting to undercut Award and Agreement titles,” it said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the accurate underpayment total might be higher since there are still eight cases of wage theft in progress, some potentially involving millions of dollars.
On top of this, several universities are still still waiting to undertake an audit.
It comes as the federal government looks to crack down on wage theft with its new workplace laws, which aim to tackle some significant issues in universities, including industrial relations and casualisation of the workforce.
The laws, which passed the lower house last week, would see employers who deliberately underpay staff face up to 10 years in prison.
The workplace changes will be debated in the Senate in February.
The crackdowns follow accusations that the University of Melbourne threatened to cut the work of casual academics who wanted pay for working extra hours in 2022.
The Fair Work Ombudsman claimed the university coerced and took adverse action against two casual teachers.
Signage for The University of Melbourne is seen in Melbourne, Australia, on Nov. 2, 2022. AAP Image/James Ross
Casualisation In Universities
Education Minister Jason Clare said the main problem with university underpayments is the high use of casual positions.“We see [casualisation] right across the workforce nationwide, but we certainly see it in our universities.”
Between 2000 and 2019, casual university workers grew by 89 percent, while permanent staff increased by about half in the same period.
It led to employees juggling a variety of contracts across multiple universities, which some leaders say is a “loophole” for wage theft.
Industrial Relations Minister Tony Burke said the wage theft “loophole” must be closed.
However, Minerals Council of Australia CEO Tania Costable said closing the loopholes was “completely ridiculous.”
“The government is getting into commercial arrangements,” she said.
Lack of Proper Data Recording Process
Meanwhile, WageSafe Representative Qianqian Zhou has a different point of view.She attributed underpayments in universities to a lack of a proper data recording process rather than casualisation.
“Many employers cross-check the salary manually by pulling reports from attendance systems and checking the data against the actual pay,” she said.
“Needless to say, when employee numbers reach a certain scale, manual, sampled checks lead to inevitable mistakes.”
Data expert Troy Wilson also weighed in.
He stressed the importance of all employers collecting accurate data regarding work performed by casuals.
“Not just the time rostered to work, but also the actual times worked, including additional unscheduled work time, to ensure payroll systems can accurately compensate casual employees for their work,” he said.
