Wage underpayments to university staff total $382m, says union

The tally of university underpayment of wages to staff could reach $400 million, according to the National Tertiary Education Union.

Alison Barnes, national president of the NTEU. Photo: James Croucher

The tally of university underpayment of wages to staff could reach $400m, according to the National Tertiary Education Union.

In a new report the union said confirmed “wage theft” – such as failure to pay penalty rates, failure to pay for minimum shift durations, underpayment for marking and failure to pay full superannuation obligations – now amounted to $203m at 30 universities.

The union’s tally of underpaid wages has risen from $159 million last December.

Last month Deakin University admitted it had underpaid casual academics in its Arts and Education Faculty and said it would expand a review into the issue across the university.

Deakin has not yet released a figure for the underpayments, but in its new report the NTEU estimates the figure at $10m.

In April James Cook University said it may have underpaid casual staff and promised an investigation.

In addition to the instances of wage underpayment which universities have already admitted to and agreed to address, the union said nine universities had made provision in their 2023 annual reports for another $168m to repay lost wages.

The NTEU report also said that an estimated $10m was owed to staff by three unnamed universities. Together with the $203m of confirmed pay loss, and $168m of provisions in university annual reports, the total comes to $382m.

The union called for a federal parliamentary inquiry into “out-of-control university wage theft”.

NTEU national president Alison Barnes said university vice-chancellors and senior executives must be held to account.

“This extraordinary figure is a damning indictment of the way university staff are being ripped off by their employers,” she said.