Higher education workers have suffered $83.4 million worth of wage theft in just the past three years, new analysis has found.
The National Tertiary Education Union will on Monday launch its landmark Wage Theft Report which presents a comprehensive analysis of underpayments in higher education.
While the headline figure of wage underpayments is $83,363,141 million, the report reveals the actual amount is almost certainly higher with at least three cases still ongoing or without a figure disclosed.
The report also details tactics some university managements have used to avoid paying workers who the union alleges are owed wages.
“This report exposes what we’ve known for some time – systemic wage theft has been baked into universities’ business models,” NTEU National President Dr Alison Barnes said.
“It’s heartbreaking our public universities are being run like greedy corporations with no respect for paying hard-working staff what they’re owed.
“The sheer scale of wage theft in higher education is staggering. It’s absolutely shameful that so many Australian university staff have had wages stolen.
“The Federal Government now has 83 million reasons to stamp out wage theft in higher education with emphatic action.
“The Labor Party’s promise to make wage theft a crime needs strong penalties including jail for bosses who commit the most egregious offences.
“Rampant casualisation is at the heart of the wage theft crisis that has engulfed higher education. More secure jobs will help stop the scourge.
“We need fresh root and branch inquiries into rotten university governance. Something is drastically wrong.
“Let’s get to the bottom of it and fix it, so we can create the better universities our country deserves.”
The analysis breaks down higher education wage theft by state, with Victoria leading underpayments with more than $50.2 million ahead of NSW at almost $25 million.
The University of Melbourne takes the ignominious honour of having the highest tally for one institution with $31.6 million in stolen wages in four separate cases. The University of Sydney is ranked second with $12.7 million.
The report calls for action in three key areas: criminalising wage theft, effective casual conversion provisions to slash insecure work, and fresh parliamentary inquiries into university governance.
