[Australia] University of Western Australia to repay $10.6m underpaid superannuation

The University of Western Australia (UWA) is set to repay $10.6 million to thousands of former and current staff members after self-reporting superannuation underpayments dating back over a decade, WAtoday reports.

On May 16, the university announced that superannuation underpayments had affected 2700 existing and 5500 former employees. Australia’s biggest tertiary education union responded by calling for urgent reforms.

UWA Vice-Chancellor Amit Chakma confirmed that the pay discrepancy had been reported to the Fair Work Ombudsman in an email sent to staff. He reportedly stated that affected staff would be repaid $6.6 million, plus $4 million in interest.

News of the repayments followed a review of superannuation entitlements carried out by the university. It identified shortfalls in applying the 17 per cent superannuation contribution to some employee allowance and leave entitlements.

In the email, Mr Chakma wrote, “We deeply regret this has occurred, and we offer our sincere apologies to those affected. We will continue to review the application of employee entitlements to ensure this does not happen again.

“It was unintentional and we assure you that the university had previously acted in accordance with what we understood to be our obligations.

“The university is committed to an ongoing culture of compliance, continuous improvement and review of its payroll processes and administration to ensure all university employees are receiving the correct entitlements.”

The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) has reportedly predicted that the multimillion-dollar total will rise when the university completes a review of potential wage theft from casual staff later in the year.

The wage theft scandal is one of a series to impact Australian universities. According to the NTEU, in recent years approximately 110,000 staff have missed out on nearly $170 million.

Dr Sanna Peden - the union’s UWA branch president - said staff had every right to be angry about unpaid superannuation entitlements dating back over a decade.

“We know this multimillion-dollar wage theft is only likely to get worse with management looking into possible underpayment of casual staff,” she said.

“The union will do everything in our power to ensure staff are repaid in full for this egregious behaviour.”

Dr Scott Fitzgerald - the union’s acting WA division secretary - reportedly stated that Australian universities were robbing workers as part of a business model which thrived on exploitation.

“It’s clear that federal and state governments’ expectation that universities become exemplary employers is being ignored,” he said.

“The only way we can stop the wage theft epidemic is by ending the insecure work crisis and fixing universities’ broken governance model.”

Source: WAtoday

(Link and quotes via original reporting)

The University of Western Australia (UWA) is set to repay $10.6 million to thousands of former and current staff members after self-reporting superannuation underpayments dating back over a decade, WAtoday reports.

On May 16, the university announced that superannuation underpayments had affected 2700 existing and 5500 former employees. Australia’s biggest tertiary education union responded by calling for urgent reforms.

UWA Vice-Chancellor Amit Chakma confirmed that the pay discrepancy had been reported to the Fair Work Ombudsman in an email sent to staff. He reportedly stated that affected staff would be repaid $6.6 million, plus $4 million in interest.

News of the repayments followed a review of superannuation entitlements carried out by the university. It identified shortfalls in applying the 17 per cent superannuation contribution to some employee allowance and leave entitlements.

In the email, Mr Chakma wrote, “We deeply regret this has occurred, and we offer our sincere apologies to those affected. We will continue to review the application of employee entitlements to ensure this does not happen again.

“It was unintentional and we assure you that the university had previously acted in accordance with what we understood to be our obligations.

“The university is committed to an ongoing culture of compliance, continuous improvement and review of its payroll processes and administration to ensure all university employees are receiving the correct entitlements.”

The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) has reportedly predicted that the multimillion-dollar total will rise when the university completes a review of potential wage theft from casual staff later in the year.

The wage theft scandal is one of a series to impact Australian universities. According to the NTEU, in recent years approximately 110,000 staff have missed out on nearly $170 million.

Dr Sanna Peden - the union’s UWA branch president - said staff had every right to be angry about unpaid superannuation entitlements dating back over a decade.

“We know this multimillion-dollar wage theft is only likely to get worse with management looking into possible underpayment of casual staff,” she said.

“The union will do everything in our power to ensure staff are repaid in full for this egregious behaviour.”

Dr Scott Fitzgerald - the union’s acting WA division secretary - reportedly stated that Australian universities were robbing workers as part of a business model which thrived on exploitation.

“It’s clear that federal and state governments’ expectation that universities become exemplary employers is being ignored,” he said.

“The only way we can stop the wage theft epidemic is by ending the insecure work crisis and fixing universities’ broken governance model.”

Source: WAtoday

(Link and quotes via original reporting)