Monash University has been forced to withdraw and reissue hundreds of backpay notices to casual academics, after admitting its own wage remediation scheme is riddled with calculation errors.
The university began releasing the first wave of backpay assessments on June 25, covering unpaid student consultation work going back nine years.
Within days, NTEU discovered staff in the School of Philosophical, Historical and Indigenous Studies were being under-assessed by 20 to 30 per cent. One worker owed $11,500 was offered just $3,500.
Monash has agreed to withdraw and reissue all 274 assessments in that school.
Similar problems are emerging in the Faculty of Business and Economics and the Faculty of Information Technology, where staff report missing units, incorrect consultation hours, and assessments that include units they never taught.
The NTEU has lodged a formal dispute against the university.
NTEU Monash Branch President Dr Ben Eltham said:
"Monash trumpets itself as a world top-50 university, but it can't even pay its teachers properly. Embarrassingly, Monash has been forced to recall hundreds of backpay notices because they were calculated wrong.
"Monash is underpaying the remediation for the underpayments. It's underpayment squared.
"We say to all current and former Monash teaching staff: if you get one of these Notices, object to it. In many cases, they are wrong.
"We call on Monash Chancellor Megan Clark to intervene and clean up this mess. She should meet with some of the teachers that are owed backpay and hear their stories. Then she might understand how badly the university has stuffed this up."
NTEU Victorian Division Secretary Sarah Roberts said:
“First Monash dragged its feet on repaying staff the wages they were owed, now it’s bungling the backpay. This is Australia’s largest university by enrolment, yet it can’t get the basics right when it comes to paying its staff.
“Some of this wage theft is almost a decade old. It’s shameful that staff are still forced to fight for every single dollar they are owed.”
NTEU National President Dr Alison Barnes said:
“Universities across Australia are responsible for a $300 million wage theft epidemic which is a key part of the deep governance crisis our institutions are mired in.
“Senior executives are again showing they can’t be trusted to clean up this mess - exactly the reason why we need major governance reform from federal and state governments.”
Media contacts:
Matt Coughlan 0400 561 480