The university announces under and over payments

In a message to staff yesterday, Chief People Officer David Ward stated that although a review “confirmed a high level of accuracy in our payments, some issues were identified.”

It appears MU has only discovered the “issues” recently – there is no provision for disputed unpaid wages in the university’s last annual report.

The university now advises 1105 present and past staff are affected and are owed a total $880 000, for work between January 2016 and November ’22.

Macquarie U joins a bunch of universities which have advised the Fair Work Ombudsman they made but are fixing pay errors – which is wise. The FWO takes a dim view of institutions underpaying people. Regulator TESA has also signalled it has had it with HE providers getting pay wrong (CMM May 16 ‘22).

There are generally two types of pay fails, although MU is silent as to what was the cause of its underpayments.

One is administrative error, common in cases of professional staff, where oft complex pay rates are incorrectly applied (variable rates for hours worked, meal allowances and the like). The other, which more often applies to academic casuals, occurs where a university’s enterprise agreement includes a scale of rates for teaching, commonly for marking, and people who should be paid at the top aren’t.

MU staff involved were advised yesterday and former employees “will be informed progressively.”