But how many or how much is not announced

Management says external consultants have identified penalty rates not being “correctly applied” and staff not being paid specified time for tasks, regardless of how long they actually took. Problems are due to, “historically inconsistent practice across the institution and varying interpretations of complex staff agreements,” Chief People Officer Jill Bye says.

The university does not mention numbers or categories of staff. However if Uni Tas is in-line with universities across the country which have already identified underpayments, professional staff may not have been paid penalty rates and casuals in general could be owed for minimum-hour payments not made in full.
However, the National Tertiary Education Union rejects management’s “complex staff agreement” suggestion, responding “ensuring correct payroll systems and processes is business 101.”

Union state secretary Pat McConville warns that with “around half” the university workforce casually employed, identified problem areas “may be just the tip of the iceberg.”

According to Ms Bye identifying underpayments will take “well into this year” but all owed money back to 2014 will be paid, plus interest, “we will be open with people and put things right,” she says.