The university has set up an online hub for staff affected by the underpayment issues, which will be updated with information on how to navigate the remediation process. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
The Australian National University (ANU) has owned up to underpaying staff around $2 million in wages following an investigation sparked by the Fair Work Commission.
After an inquiry by the Fair Work Ombudsman in relation to one casual staff member, the ANU conducted investigations that discovered two separate issues affecting staff payments over an 11-year period.
The issue directly attributed to the $2 million figure relates to a timesheet that a supervisor did not action due to a system configuration error. ANU has identified 2290 casual professional and sessional staff who were affected, equating to a median loss of $600 each.
ANU’s Chief People Officer (CPO) Kate Witenden said the university has already taken immediate and proactive steps to address these issues.
“Work is underway to ensure all casual staff who are affected, whether they are former or current employees, are paid what they are owed as quickly as possible,” she said.
“We anticipate this to take 10 to 12 weeks to ensure a thorough review, calculation and processing of the appropriate remediation payments.
“We deeply value the contributions of all our staff and we sincerely apologise that this has happened.”
On-call availability allowances were the other payment issues identified by the ANU.
Staff members who received an on-call availability allowance and responded to emergency situations may not have been paid the correct allowance. The university’s investigation identified some staff who may not have been paid the applicable overtime rates when required to attend work while on call.
Only 130 staff have been identified as affected by this, but the CPO said ANU is “taking this matter seriously and is committed to thoroughly investigating to ensure all remediation payments are made”.
Along with an online hub for affected staff, the ANU has engaged KPMG to review the methodology it uses to identify underpayments and assist in calculating appropriate remediation payments for each affected staff member (including superannuation entitlements and interest payments).
“The university has voluntarily self-reported these findings to the Fair Work Ombudsman, and we will continue to maintain contact with the Ombudsman as we remedy these issues,” said Ms Witenden.
“Affected staff will be contacted this afternoon by the Division of Shared Services via email.
“ANU prides itself on being a great place to work for all our staff, and we are committed to giving more job security and certainty to casual staff.
“We will continue to update our community and unreservedly apologise to our affected staff members.”
Last month, the NTEU called for an “urgent” federal parliamentary inquiry following the release of new data confirming underpayments to university staff now totalling more than $203 million in recent years. The union said this figure is on track to hit $380 million by the end of this year.
Types of verified underpayment commonly found in Australian universities include failure to pay penalty rates, failure to pay appropriate rates (by work classification), failure to pay for minimum shift durations, not correctly paying for marking, and withholding payment of full superannuation amounts.
Universities’ annual reports reveal a further $168 million has been set aside to repay workers for suspected wage theft incidents. The union estimated at the time that there’s a further $10 million shortfall across three universities, but the universities are refusing to reveal the full extent of their underpayments.
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