Union says underpayments could exceed $10 million
Deakin University has been added to the growing list of universities in Australia admitting to underpaying employees.
The university informed its staff this week that it underpaid casual academics in its arts and education faculties, news.com.au reported.
Deakin vice-chancellor Iain Martin told employees that this was the result of a "misapplication of marking formulas used to calculate the pay of sessional academic staff."
Reports did not indicate how much employees are owed in underpayments, but the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) said it could "exceed $10 million."
"Some individuals were underpaid more than $45,000," the NTEU said in its media release.
'Clear-cut case of wage theft'
According to the NTEU, it informed Deakin management in June 2022 of the systemic underpayments of sessional staff for marking, before referring it to the Fair Work Commission in November the same year.
Sarah Roberts, NTEU Victorian Division Secretary, said the university's refusal to admit a "clear-cut case of wage theft for two whole years is a disgrace."
"As late as February this year, management was still insisting the piece rate used to fleece workers didn't exist – despite staff presenting rock solid evidence," Roberts said in a statement.
"This humiliating admission is a huge win for brave NTEU members at Deakin who have been on a two-year journey to expose this shocking conduct."
Potential legal case
Deakin University said it already reported itself to the Fair Work Ombudsman over the underpayments in two of its schools. But the union claims that the situation is "widespread wage theft across the organisation," adding that it may be forced to initiate Federal Court action if management doesn't make a full admission.
"Unfortunately, Deakin has only fessed up to stealing wages in two schools, but we won't rest until this entire systematic scandal is fully exposed and every cent owed repaid," Roberts said.
According to reports, the university said it tapped law firm Corrs Chambers Westgarth and financial services giant Deloitte to review its payment practices.
"We are committed to expanding this review to determine whether there are any other affected sessional academic staff in other areas of the University," Martin said as quoted by news.com.au.
Expanding underpayments list
With its admission, Deakin adds to the growing list of Australian institutions revealing underpayments. A day before Deakin, the University of Queensland also confessed to staff that it underpaid casual academic and casual professional staff nearly $8 million.
"It's absolutely shameful that just one day after the University of Queensland admitted to $8 million in wage theft, Deakin has been added to the ever-growing list of university wage thieves," said NTEU national president Alison Barnes in a statement.
Wage theft tally at universities have now surpassed $180 million, according to previous data from the NTEU.
"The spiralling wage theft epidemic needs urgent action from state and federal governments," Barnes said. "We need to end the insecure work crisis and implement a proper governance system if we're serious about having the universities Australia deserves."
