‘Enough is enough’: University wage theft to exceed $382m, sparks calls for inquiry

Following the release of data revealing that wage theft at Australia’s universities is on track to exceed $382 million nationally, there are calls for urgent government action.

Yesterday (Wednesday, 26 June), the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) released new data showing confirmed underpayments to university staff are now standing at more than $203 million in recent years.

Furthermore, annual reports from Australia’s universities have shown that an additional $168m has been set aside to repay workers for suspected wage theft incidents.

According to the union’s estimates, there is a further $10 million, across three universities, which are refusing to reveal the full extent of their underpayments.

Some universities have self-reported to the Fair Work Ombudsman, the union noted. However, it added, others have “fought tooth and nail” against wage theft claims.

“Wage theft at our public universities has spiralled beyond a crisis into a national disgrace,” declared NTEU national president Dr Alison Barnes.

“Vice-chancellors and senior executives must be held to account for the industrial-scale wage theft that has become the shameful hallmark of Australian universities. This extraordinary figure is a damning indictment of the way university staff are being ripped off by their employers.

“University staff will not accept any more empty platitudes – it’s time for vice-chancellors to finally face proper scrutiny for this awful behaviour.

“Wage theft is a crime. Who has lost their job? Who is going to jail?

“We’re calling on all political parties to back an urgent parliamentary inquiry into out-of-control university wage theft.

“Australian taxpayers are being taken for a ride by unaccountable vice-chancellors and senior executives committing wage theft at proportions that would make the private sector blush.”

Senator Mehreen Faruqi, the Australian Greens’ deputy leader and spokesperson for higher education, said that NTEU’s findings are “no shock to any of us”.

“Wage theft in universities is a systemic scourge that is harming staff across the country,” the senator said.

“The fact that we have a university system where vice-chancellor’s earn salaries exceeding $1 million a year while casual staff are robbed of hundreds of millions of dollars is obscene.

“Enough is enough. It is time for the government to fix the broken business model of the neoliberal university that only works off the back of casual and underpaid staff. This must end.

“The government must take immediate and decisive action by requiring universities to set publicly available targets for increasing permanent employment. There should also be clearer reporting requirements with respect to employment statistics and improved rights of entry for trade unions,

“Critically, the government must significantly increase funding for universities, and overhaul university governance to shift the balance of power from university management back to staff and students.”