Swinburne underpays casual employees with over $2.8 million

Swinburne University of Technology has underpaid nearly 2,000 casual employees by over $2.8 million, its president revealed on Tuesday.

Pascale Quester, vice chancellor and president, said a total of 1,699 current and former employees of Swinburne University of Technology are owed $2.6 million.

Another 114 current and former employees are also owed $245,610 at Swinburne College, which is a joint entity and a separate employer with a separate payroll system.

According to the vice chancellor, the impacted cohorts of employees at the Swinburne University of Technology include:

• Casual academic unit conveners
• Casual academic research assistants
• Casual vocational education and training teachers
• Casual academics who deliver lectures/tutorials

At Swinburne College, casual teachers, including those employed directly by the university before 15 February 2020, are affected.

"The issues differ across the cohorts and include issues concerning minimum engagement payments for casual teachers, incorrect application of repeat tutorial/lecture payments for some casual academics, and incorrect pay rates in respect to some casual unit convenors and research assistants," Quester told employees in a letter later published by the university.

Underpayment discovery at university

The university said the underpayments were because of "discrepancies relating to misinterpretation and misapplication of clauses in relevant enterprise agreements and/or systems limitations."

Quester, however, maintained that the underpayments were unintentional.

"The underpayments were unintentional but should not have occurred," she told employees. "Separately to the issues identified, we are undertaking additional compliance and assurance steps to further ensure full pay compliance and that other issues do not arise in the future. If any further issues are identified, they will be fully addressed as a priority."

Remediation for employees

Current staff who are affected will receive their full back-pay of wages, including interest, on May 7, according to Quester. The university has also begun contacting former employees to allow "swift remediation."

"For those impacted staff who transferred to Swinburne College in February 2020, you will receive a separate letter from the College in relation to its review of this issue," she said.

The vice chancellor added that they engaged with KPMG to assist and independently calculate the amounts owed to each employee.

"This will ensure remediation is made proactively, fairly, reasonably, and as a priority. Impacted employees will receive full back-pay of wages, together with interest and applicable superannuation," she said.

They have also taken steps to ensure similar cases won't happen again, she added.

The university has already self-reported to the Fair Work Ombudsman and has since notified the other regulators and both the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) and the Australian Education Union.

FWO urged to probe delayed notice

NTEU, however, said voluntary self-reporting to the FWO should not be a "get-out-of-jail free card." NTEU Swinburne Branch President Julie Kimber said they had already raised several issues on the university's payroll practices as early as 2022.

"Despite repeated requests to the University to audit its payroll system, nothing was done," Kimber said in a statement. "We urge the Fair Work Ombudsman to investigate why the university has only just notified this issue despite being aware of the problems for over two years."

The NTEU also renewed its call for reforms on university governance after the incident.

"The explosion of insecure work and broken governance system is fuelling the systemic wage theft plaguing public universities," said NTEU National President Alison Barnes in a statement.

Various universities across Australia have been coming out this year with major underpayment cases, such as the James Cook University and Australian Catholic University.