CDU announces casual, non-academic staff underpaid

Charles Darwin University has launched an internal review into payment practices for casual staff, after some were found to be underpaid.

CHARLES Darwin University has launched an internal review into payment practices for casual staff, with the institution expected to pay out millions.

Vice-Chancellor Scott Bowman said a detailed assessment of the university’s payment records over the last six years found some professional, non-academic casual staff had been underpaid.

Professor Bowman said under the university’s enterprise agreement, casual staff who had worked one hour were entitled to three hours worth of pay.

He said due to “purely an admin error”, some casual staffers had not been paid the entitled three hours.

The internal review is anticipated to take up to 12 months to complete and will go through records back to February 2016.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Scott Bowman said the internal review was expected to take up to 12 months. Picture: Amanda Parkinson

“From the first look at it, we’re probably looking at somewhere between $2m and $4m that we’re going to owe but it could be it could be above that,” Prof Bowman said.

He said the university’s payroll systems had changed as a result, with all processes centralised instead of conducted by CDU’s respective colleges.

“As the Vice-Chancellor of the university I really do apologise,” he said.

“I apologise that we haven’t paid people what they were entitled to. We will get this sorted out as quickly as possible and we’re committed to providing them with what they were owed. We will also pay interest on that.”

The Fair Work Ombudsman, the National Tertiary Education Union NT and other unions have been advised of the review.