Australian Catholic University Underpays Casual Staff $3.6 Million

A sign leading to the Pell Centre at the Australian Catholic University's Aquinas Campus in Ballarat, Australia, on Aug. 23, 2019. (William West/AFP via Getty Images)

Australian Catholic University (ACU) has admitted that it underpaid over 1,000 casual teaching staff $3.6 million (US$2.36 million) in the past seven years.

In an email to teaching staff on Jan. 17, ACU vice-chancellor and president Zlatko Skrbis stated that an audit had revealed “inaccuracies” in the way the university calculated entitlements for them, resulting in underpayments for some staff between 2016 and 2023.

Around 1,100 staff were affected, with a total estimated underpayment of $3.6 million.

The public university, which has campuses in Victoria, New South Wales (NSW), the Australian Capital Territory, and Queensland, said the above amount was related to the incidents where some sessional teaching staff with Ph.D. qualifications or tasked with other specific duties were underpaid.

Mr. Skrbis apologised to all the affected staff, saying they deserved to be paid correctly for their work.

“It is our responsibility to ensure you are being paid correctly,” he said in a statement.

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“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.

“ACU is committed to wage integrity, in accordance not only with our legal obligations but also with our dedication to upholding the principles of Catholic Social Teaching. Our mission as a Catholic university commits us to treat every human person with dignity and respect.”

ACU Denies Involvement in Wage Theft

While acknowledging the underpayments, the university denied engaging in wage theft.

“Wage theft generally arises where there is an intentional underpayment. The university did not intend to underpay employees at all,” the university said, as reported by ABC News.

ACU said it was contacting all former and current staff who were underpaid to apologise and tell them the amount they were owed.

The university also promised to pay all the staff in full with interest as soon as possible.

At the same time, ACU disclosed the matter to relevant authorities, including the Fair Work Ombudsman, the Australian Taxation Office and unions.

Australian Universities Underpaid Staff Nearly $159 Million

ACU’s announcement comes after a report by the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) showed that 97,281 university employees had been underpaid more than $158.7 million across 32 universities since 2014.

Among the jurisdictions, Victoria had the highest amount of underpayment at $75 million, followed by NSW at $65 million, and Tasmania at $11 million.

NTEU National President Alison Barnes cited staff casualisation as one of the main reasons for the significant amount of underpayments and called on the government to crack down on the practice.

“If universities are to finally become exemplary employers, then we need to end the scourge of casualisation using state and federal powers, including funding,” she said.

“With two-thirds of university staff in casual or fixed-term employment, not tackling this is a massive risk for the future of higher education.”

Other factors contributing to underpayments included a lack of leadership and accountability within university management, according to the union president.

Federal Education Minister Jason Clare also attributed the underpayment problem to the high use of casual positions across Australian universities.

“We see [casualisation] right across the workforce nationwide, but we certainly see it in our universities.”

Isabella Rayner contributed to the article.