University of the Sunshine Coast taken to court by National Tertiary Education Union

The higher education union is taking a major Queensland university to court over claims staff were expected to “donate their free time” to complete their work despite massive profits.

A major Queensland university is being taken to federal court by the higher education union, seeking compensation for staff allegedly subjected to an “unfair” workload model.

The National Tertiary Education Union is seeking potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars in compensation for University of the Sunshine Coast staff, who it claims were expected to “donate their free time” to complete their work.

A ruling by the Fair Work Commission in November last year found USC workload models in at least three schools – the school of health and behavioural science, the school of education and tertiary access, and the school of law and society – were flawed, and did not accurately reflect the time duties required to be undertaken by staff actually took.

The Commission found the parties should agree on a “new methodology” to accurately reflect the time it took academics to undertake specific work.

But NTEU Queensland secretary Michael McNally said since the ruling USC had not “spoken to affected staff, let alone apologise or compensate them” over the workload models.

The University of the Sunshine Coast are accused of making their staff “donate their free time” to complete their work. Picture: Brett Wortman/Sunshine Coast Daily

Mr McNally also said management at the university had “rejected” an offer to work with the union last year to create “realistic” workload models, and instead had embarked on creating entirely new models.

“Unsurprisingly, the consultation has been tokenistic, and the new models were not ready for the start of the year,” he said.

“There has to be consequences for universities that don’t count academic work properly and expect staff to donate their free time to get the job done.

“Staff are left with a choice: give up your free time or short-change the students. Staff invariably get the work done.”

Academics had claimed the university’s workload model had left them struggling to complete work such as research and course preparation within their allocated working hours.

Mr McNally also noted the university posted an operating surplus of $45 million in 2021, adding it was “outrageous that USC is banking huge profits while short-changing their staff”.

“We are disappointed that we have had to go to the Federal Court to get USC management to do the right thing by their staff,” he said.

A court date was yet to be finalised.

USC have been contacted for comment.