ACU admits to underpaying 1,100 casual staff $3.6m
But the university denies engaging in wage theft and has said its error was unintentional.
The Australian Catholic University has admitted to $3.6 million in underpayments to 1,100 casual staff but denies engaging in wage theft, according to a statement from the university on Wednesday.
ACU said an “extensive audit” uncovered underpayments relating to the incorrect application of entitlements for sessional staff between 2016 and 2023.
In an email to staff on Wednesday, Vice-Chancellor Zlatko Skrbis apologised “sincerely and unequivocally” on behalf of the university and the Senate.
“You deserve to be paid correctly for your work and it is our responsibility to ensure you are being paid correctly,” he said.
However, the university maintained it did not engage in wage theft due to the unintentional nature of its error.
“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,” Mr Skrbis said.
The university’s staff enterprise agreement provided for higher pay rates for sessional academics with PhD qualifications, unit coordination or lecturer-in-charge duties.
ACU said it first became aware it breached this agreement in late 2022 when an internal review identified underpayments to some casual sessional academics in the School of Allied Health and Faculty of Health Sciences.
A broader review with external experts in 2023 then found “the issue had potential to exist more broadly than just the School of Allied Health”, it said.
Consequently, provisions were made in the 2023 budget to fully repay affected staff with interest.
The same budget forecasted a deficit of $30 million due to dwindling enrolments and rising costs, forcing the university to lay off 113 full-time staff across its Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Ballarat campuses “to balance the budget”.
ACU has since notified the FWO, National Tertiary Education Union and Community and Public Sector Union as well as regulators like the ATO and the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency.
The NTEU responded angrily to the news with a release headlined, “Australian Catholic University admits to $3.6 million wage theft” and national president Alison Barnes said ACU’s admission was further proof that wage theft was “endemic” in higher education.
“There's barely a university in Australia which hasn’t been caught out stealing workers’ wages,” she said.
“Underpayments and aggressive casualisation are baked into universities’ business models. We need major reforms tackling insecure work and governance if we’re to even make universities acceptable, let alone exemplary employers.”
The NTEU said university wage theft had exceeded $170 million and affected 101,700 staff across all major tertiary institutions.
In 2023, the FWO accepted court-enforceable undertakings with three universities and sued the University of Melbourne over $150,000 in underpayments to casual staff.
NTEU branch president Leah Kaufmann said the union was disappointed it was not consulted by ACU about this “extremely serious systemic wage underpayment”.
But she said that ACU management had self-reported and apologised “unlike some other universities”.
“The NTEU welcomes ACU’s commitment to pay every sessional employee at the highest rate until they can be confident in their payment systems ensuring staff are paid at the appropriate rate. This should be a lesson to all universities: if you’re not sure, pay more.”
ACU said it would be improving payroll and information systems and had also implemented additional assurance measures and payroll controls which would be tested with regular ongoing audits.
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