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The Australian Catholic University (ACU) has confirmed it underpaid approximately 1,100 casual staff around $3.6 million between 2016 and 2023.
- The Australian Catholic University said it first became aware of the pay issues in late 2022, before an audit found it underpaid around 1,100 staff
- The university says it owes around $3.6 million, which it will pay "as soon as possible" with interest and superannuation contributions
- It's the latest in a long list of tertiary education bodies found to have underpaid staff, but says it did not take part in wage theft
ACU vice-chancellor and president Zlatko Skrbis emailed staff on Wednesday to explain how inaccuracies in the way entitlements were calculated led to the underpayment of some staff.
The university says it first became aware of "potential anomalies" in late 2022. It says these were then identified in an audit, which found that some sessional staff who were entitled to higher rates of pay — because they had PhD qualifications, or were carrying out higher duties — were left underpaid.
ACU, which has campuses in New South Wales, Victoria, the ACT, Queensland and the Italian city of Rome, denies taking part in wage theft.
"Wage theft generally arises where there is an intentional underpayment. The university did not intend to underpay employees at all," the university says.
ACU says it is contacting affected staff and payments will be "paid in full, with interest, as soon as possible". The university says relevant superannuation contributions will also be made.
"You deserve to be paid correctly for your work and it is our responsibility to ensure you are being paid correctly," Professor Skrbis wrote in his email to staff.
"On behalf of the university, I would like to sincerely and unequivocally apologise on behalf of the university and the Senate to every employee — past and present."
ACU said it was working to avoid any future underpayments of its staff.
"A further program of work to review employee entitlements more broadly is ongoing. We are also working to implement enhanced governance and controls to ensure these errors do not happen again," it said.
The university said it provided details of its underpayments to the Fair Work Ombudsman, the National Tertiary Education Union and Community and Public Sector Union, as well as the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency, the Australian Taxation Office and UniSuper.
ACU is the latest in a long list of Australian tertiary education organisations which have been found to have underpaid their staff.
In a report released in December 2023, the National Tertiary Education Union found almost 100,000 university staff across Australia had been underpaid nearly $160 million.
In a statement on Wednesday, the union said the underpayment of ACU staff was "deeply concerning".
"This is a systemic and sector-wide issue that needs to be addressed immediately, we need governance reform now," it said.