The University of Wollongong will repay more than $6.6 million to 5,340 current and former employees after admitting widespread underpayments and entering into an Enforceable Undertaking with the Fair Work Ombudsman.
The back pay covers breaches between 2014 and 2024 and includes more than $4.9 million in wages and entitlements, over $1.1 million in interest, and more than $630,000 in superannuation and interest. Most repayments have already been made, though the university has not yet been able to locate about 200 former staff. Individual repayments range from less than $20 to more than $36,000.
Alongside the repayments, the university must make a $130,000 contrition payment to the Commonwealth Consolidated Revenue Fund, with a second payment to follow once two still-open matters are finalised.
Most affected workers were casual professional services staff in non-teaching roles, though some full-time and part-time academic and support staff were also underpaid. The bulk of underpayments occurred at the Wollongong main campus and stemmed largely from failures to pay casuals the minimum three-hour engagement and the correct penalty rates for shift work. The university also underpaid weekend and public holiday penalties, overtime, various leave entitlements, and entitlements linked to redundancy, severance and retirement.
The failures were attributed to poor governance and fundamental payroll system errors. The university had previously assured the Fair Work Commission, as part of securing approval for an enterprise agreement, that it would honour the minimum engagement entitlement set out in the Higher Education Industry – General Staff Award, but did not comply. The institution became aware of the issues after staff raised queries, self-reporting to the regulator in 2023.
Fair Work Ombudsman Anna Booth said an Enforceable Undertaking was appropriate given the university’s cooperation and remediation efforts. “The University of Wollongong deserves credit for acknowledging its breaches and the underlying issues, and committing significant time and resources to put in place corrective measures that will ensure both full remediation of impacted staff and improved compliance for the future,” Ms Booth said.
“The matter serves as a warning of the significant long-running problems that can result from an employer failing to have appropriate checks and balances to ensure workplace compliance. We expect universities to meet their legal obligations under their own enterprise agreements and underlying awards.”
Under the agreement, Wollongong has committed to finish rectifying all underpayments with interest and to a suite of compliance measures, including:
– providing the regulator with details of systems and process improvements;
– extra training for relevant staff on Fair Work obligations;
– two independent audits at the university’s expense and rectification of any further underpayments;
– maintaining an employee payments complaint and review mechanism;
– establishing an ongoing consultative forum with employees and the National Tertiary Education Union on workplace relations compliance;
– embedding Fair Work compliance monitoring in its Risk, Audit and Compliance Committee; and
– notifying staff via the intranet, public website, all-staff email and direct letters to affected employees.
The action is part of a broader crackdown on underpayments across the university sector. Since 2022, the Ombudsman has secured Enforceable Undertakings with La Trobe University, the University of Sydney, the University of Melbourne, the University of Technology Sydney, the University of Newcastle, Charles Sturt University and Griffith University; won court penalties against the University of Melbourne for adverse action against two casual academics; and begun legal proceedings against the University of NSW.
“Improving universities’ workplace compliance is a priority for the Fair Work Ombudsman. We look forward to continuing to work with the leadership teams at universities nationally to assist them to do the sustained, smart work required to ensure their employees benefit from full compliance with workplace laws,” Ms Booth said.
Current and former workers seeking guidance can contact the Fair Work Infoline on 13 13 94 or visit fairwork.gov.au; translation support is available on 13 14 50.
