The University of Queensland has signed an Enforceable Undertaking with the Fair Work Ombudsman after underpayments of about $11 million, including interest and superannuation, to 16,382 staff.
The university’s underpayments occurred between 2017 and 2026, with the highest amount paid to an individual to remedy an underpayment being $41,643, including interest and superannuation, the lowest less than a dollar, and the average amount $564.
The total is made up of about $9.2 million in wages, about $427,000 in interest, $1.02 million in superannuation, and about $315,000 in interest on the superannuation.
Under the terms of the EU, the university will also pay a $175,000 contrition payment to the Commonwealth’s Consolidated Revenue Fund.
The university has already remediated the large majority of money owed, with more than $9.6 million, including superannuation and interest, paid to 13,514 current and former employees. The undertaking requires payments for the remaining staff.
The affected employees included academic and professional staff working at the university’s St Lucia, Herston and Dutton Park campuses in Brisbane, and its Gatton campus. Just over a quarter of affected employees came from the university’s Health, Medicine and Behavioural Science faculty.
The university reported the underpayments after first advising FWO in October 2021 that it would be commencing an external review into wage compliance to ensure that it was applying its enterprise agreement correctly.
Incorrect payroll system configurations, clerical errors and other oversights meant the university failed to comply with its 2014, 2018 and 2021 enterprise agreements.
There were errors relating to minimum engagement periods (where a worker must be paid for a minimum number of hours, regardless of actual hours worked), casual pay codes, base rates for some casual employees, failure to identify relevant PhD qualifications, and not recording additional or overtime hours worked.
Fair Work Ombudsman Anna Booth said this Enforceable Undertaking was the 15th signed with a university, continuing the FWO’s focus on addressing non-compliance in the sector.
“The Enforceable Undertaking with the University of Queensland highlights the importance of universities improving their governance over payroll and administrative systems, to ensure employees are paid correctly from the start of, and throughout, the term of a uni’s own enterprise agreement,” Ms Booth said.
Under the EU, the University of Queensland also committed to:
- informing the FWO about its improved payroll, time-and-attendance and record-keeping systems
- mandatory training for staff with supervisory responsibilities on employee entitlements and record-keeping obligations
- an independent audit to ensure ongoing compliance with workplace laws and enterprise agreements
- consulting with staff and the National Tertiary Education Union on workplace relations matters and maintaining a complaints and review mechanism for affected staff
- strengthening governance oversight through the university’s Senate Risk and Audit Committee.
“We acknowledge that the University of Queensland reported these underpayments to us and has been dedicated in taking action to rectify them and prevent future non-compliance impacting their staff,” Ms Booth said.
“Improving workplace compliance in the university sector has been an extended priority for the Fair Work Ombudsman, and we’ve made important progress nationally including through Enforceable Undertakings like this one.
“We expect employers to take sustained and proactive steps to ensure staff receive their full lawful entitlements.”
There have been 14 other universities that have entered into Enforceable Undertakings with the Fair Work Ombudsman to address systemic issues. Most recently in Queensland, CQUniversity rectified $1.3 million, including interest and superannuation, to more than 1,000 underpaid employees.
The FWO has also secured court penalties against two universities.
