The university has settled its dispute with the National Tertiary Education Union over payments to casual academics over seven years

The issue was what rate people should be paid for marking – the “standard payment” or the higher one, for work that requires “academic judgement.”

The union referred the matter to the Fair Work Commission and RMIT proposed $10m in payments (wages owed plus interest and super) without admitting liability, stating that “to verify that every payment of the ‘standard rate’ was correct in every instance would be an enormous and very time-consuming exercise.”

RMIT follows universities including UNSW, Uni Sydney, Uni Melbourne and Monash U which have acknowledged underpayment of casual academic and/or professional staff. In October, Fair Work Ombudsman Sandra Parker said there were investigations into 14 universities over pay rates (CMM October 11).