Australian Catholic University admits to $3.6 million wage underpayment

A major Australian university has made a shock admission, announcing some 1100 staff have not received their correct entitlements.

Australian Catholic University.

The Australian Catholic University has revealed a multimillion-dollar underpayment of 1100 of its casual academic staff over several years.

In a statement released on Wednesday, the university revealed a $3.6 million discrepancy in staff payments, which occurred between 2016 and 2023.

The universities vice-chancellor and president, professor Zlatko Skrbis, notified staff that inaccuracies in how entitlements were calculated had resulted in a series of underpayments.

Professor Zlatko Skrbis, vice-chancellor of the Australian Catholic University, notified staff of the underpayment on Wednesday. Picture: Supplied.

The revelations follow an extensive audit, which found the wage underpayments primarily relate to unpaid or underpaid entitlements of sessional staff with PhD qualifications, or sessional academics who were subject/unit co-ordinators or lecturers-in-charge.

The staff affected by the incident will receive full back pay, plus interest, as soon as possible, the university said.

In a statement, professor Skrbis apologised to staff who had been incorrectly remunerated.

“On behalf of the university, I would like to sincerely and unequivocally apologise on behalf of the university and the Senate to every employee – past and present.”

National Tertiary Education Union president Dr Alison Barnes slammed the university over the underpayments. Picture: Supplied.

ACU has disclosed the matter to the Fair Work Ombudsman, and advised the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) and the Commonwealth Public Sector Union, who brokered the current staff enterprise agreement.

Responding to the admission, NTEU national president Dr Alison Barnes said the underpayments – which she branded as “wage theft” – was endemic across tertiary education.

“There’s barely a university in Australia which hasn’t been caught out stealing workers’ wages,” Dr Barnes said.

“Wage theft is the symptom and insecure work is the disease.

Dr Barnes claimed underpayments was “baked into” the business models of academic institutions.

Recent analysis released by the union has found 32 tertiary institutions underpaid 97,555 staff and academics since 2009 in 55 separate incidents. Cumulatively, the underpayments were worth $159 million, or roughly $1600 each.

The Fair Work Ombudsman, Anna Booth, has previously labelled the tertiary education sector as a priority area, due to ongoing underpayment of casual employees.

Originally published as Australian Catholic University admits to $3.6 million wage underpayment