One of Australia’s most prestigious universities, RMIT University in Melbourne, has been accused of significant and systemic wage theft by the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU). The union alleged hundreds of casual academic staff were affected over several years.
Victoria’s new wage theft law states that employers who deliberately and dishonestly underpay employees could face a fine of up to $218,088 (US$158,000) or up to 10 years in jail for individuals and a fine of up to $1.1 million (US$800,000) for companies.
An RMIT spokesperson told The Epoch Times that the university is “committed to ensuring that employees receive their full entitlements and is continuing to review details of the evidence provided.
However, the university refused to give further comment on NTEU’s allegations.
“If ever RMIT is provided with evidence to suggest that any employee may not have been correctly paid, it will investigate the matter,” the spokesperson said.
“In instances when an error may have inadvertently occurred, RMIT would, of course, rectify the error.”
The accusations of wage theft followed in June 2021 when the NTEU alleged the entirety of RMIT’s 16 academic schools failed to pay the correct marking rate for academic judgment to casual academic employees.
In July, the union provided an evidence “brief” consisting of materials implicating 10 of RMIT’s schools in academic judgment wage theft to the university.
In an update to members on Sep. 3, NTEU said RMIT had initially refused to meet with the rank-and-file and only consented to 10 members attending the meeting between the two parties.
The union also noted that after hearing the accounts of casual staff who were affected by the underpayments, RMIT said it “was not in a position to have further discussions” on the issue until they had conferred with the Fair Work Ombudsman, which had been in contact with the university about the wage theft allegations.
NTEU has proposed a resolution that calls for RMIT to pay back wages for affected staff, correct policies regarding casual marking rates, and apologise to casual academic employees.
Since the beginning of the union’s campaign, a number of individual members have won thousands of dollars in back pay.
In June, RMIT Chief People Officer Megan Marshall stated that she “would be shocked and very disappointed if such behaviours were to actually arise,” adding that the university treated the allegations as “a very serious matter.”
NTEU Victorian Assistant Secretary Sarah Roberts said the case at RMIT was “unfortunately” not “an isolated incident.”
“We’ve seen similar instances now at the University of Melbourne and La Trobe University here in Victoria, as well as a recent case involving millions of dollars and hundreds of casual staff at the University of Sydney,” she said.
“Wage theft in our universities is not a one-off scandal, but an ingrained crisis. And its most powerful ingredient is the insecure work inflicted on university workers through short-term contracts and casual employment.”
The list includes the University of Melbourne, UNSW, Macquarie University, UTS, University of Sydney, and Monash University.
“This creates a completely lopsided power dynamic. Managers feel confident to squeeze employees. And employees are intimidated—they think if they enforce their rights, it’ll limit their career prospects. Insecure employment creates wage theft.”
