Fair Work Ombudsman accuses Melbourne University accused of coercing staff over payment

The University of Melbourne is facing court over allegations it coerced two academics to stop them from claiming payment for work.

The Fair Work Ombudsman has launched legal action against the University of Melbourne. Picture: Daniel Pockett

The Fair Work Ombudsman has launched legal action against the University of Melbourne, alleging that it coerced and took “adverse action” against two academics to stop them from claiming payment for past work.

The workplace regulator has filed documents in the Federal Court which allege that the university threatened not to re-employ the casual academics and sought to coerce them to not claim payment for extra work.

The two unnamed academics had been working on a series of short-term casual contracts since 2016 at the Melbourne Graduate School of Education.

The Ombudsman has claimed that their supervisor said words to the effect of “if you claim outside your contracted hours, don’t expect work next year”.

Fair Work Ombudsman Sandra Parker said the alleged conduct affected employee rights, and that starting legal action was in the public interest. The maximum penalty for each breach is $66,600.

NTEU Victoria assistant secretary Sarah Roberts welcomed the court action but said

it highlighted “deep problems” within the tertiary sector.

“It’s the kind of serious response needed to teach universities a lesson — they need to get their house in order,’’ Ms Roberts said.

A university spokesperson said the institution was committed to complying with all of its enterprise agreement obligations to staff.

“The university highly values all its employees, including casual staff members and the significant contribution they make.

“The university is looking at the specific allegations very carefully and once it has considered them will respond through relevant court processes.’’

The Ombudsman is still continuing a separate investigation into alleged underpayment of Melbourne University casual academics.

The latest action comes after the university’s vice-chancellor Duncan Maskell apologised for the underpayment of more than 1000 casual staff who were denied wages totalling as much as $10m over several years.