Media Release
17 June 2026
Monash University has failed to back-pay thousands of casual academics owed more than $10 million, almost a year after a landmark Federal Court ruling found the university had broken workplace law.
In July 2025, the court ruled Monash breached its enterprise agreement and the Fair Work Act by failing to pay casual Teaching Associates for required student consultation work.
Despite subsequently signing an enforceable undertaking with the Fair Work Ombudsman and a settlement agreement with the NTEU, Monash hasn't paid back thousands of affected staff.
The university's chief of HR has written to the NTEU saying the matter is "complex" and that there are "no specific timelines" for remediation. The Chancellor has told the Academic Board a remediation process has already begun, despite there being no evidence of that.
NTEU Monash Branch President Dr Ben Eltham said the same casual academics who had their wages stolen are now being shown contempt by management.
“These academics are on the verge of attending the worst first birthday party of all time,” he said.
“Monash students lose marks for every day their assignments are overdue, but when the University fails to pay back its teachers, nothing happens.
“At every step of this battle, Monash management has had to be dragged kicking and screaming to pay staff what they are owed. We first notified the University’s board about this matter in 2022.
“The University certainly has the money: it made a $580 million surplus last year.”
“Monash’s HR leaders actually had the gumption to tell us they were disappointed we had asked where the money was almost a year after the court ruling. That tells you everything about their attitude.”
NTEU Victorian Division Secretary Sarah Roberts said the behaviour was consistent with a pattern of disregard for staff.
"The Vice-Chancellor takes home more than a million dollars a year. Finding the resources and the will to pay back workers who were systematically underpaid should not be this hard,” she said.
“Victoria is ground zero for university wage theft. It’s a shameful title that should be motivating Vice-Chancellors to throw everything at restoring faith. The pandemic showed that universities can act fast when they want - yet we see no sense of urgency on this key reputational issue from Monash.”
NTEU National President Dr Alison Barnes said a refusal to take wage theft seriously was a hallmark of the national university governance crisis.
“Universities aren’t just stealing wages, they’re pulling out all the stops to avoid repaying staff - even when caught red-handed,” she said.
“This is what happens when vice-chancellors and senior executives operate without consequences under a broken governance model. We’ve seen $300 million in wage theft across the sector, but who has lost their job or faced any disciplinary action?”
Media contacts
Ben Eltham 0422 987 538 / Matt Coughlan 0400 561 480 / [email protected]