Monash owes sessional teaching staff $8.6m

Vice Chancellor Margaret Gardner tells staff a review of payment records finds people were underpaid for tutorials

Just under $1m is owed due to timesheet errors, with the bulk of the money owing for “inconsistent descriptions of teaching activities.”

This admission only adds to the National Tertiary Education Union argument that universities fail to pay the rates for teaching as specified in enterprise agreements. The comrades appear to have a point.

UNSW estimates it has a “potential liability to the casual academic workforce” amounting to tens of millions (CMM June 3) and Uni Melbourne has announced it owes over 1000 past and present casuals $9.5m for work they were not correctly paid for (CMM September 10).

Un Sydney has announced it owes mainly professional staff $12.75m and Uni Queensland has a review underway (CMM 14 and 22).

This is starting to look like a system problem and the Tertiary Education Quality Standards Agency has got involved – convening a webinar for universities “on the subject of wage underpayments (CMM September2).