Australian higher education staff have been underpaid $107.8 million with the wage theft tally rising after a landmark analysis was released.
The NTEU’s Wage Theft Report, released on Monday, made the conservative finding that higher education staff has been underpaid $83.4 million.
But new revelations from the University of Melbourne have taken its tally beyond $45 million, cementing it as the leading culprit.
The University of Tasmania has also begun paying back $11 million owed to workers.
NTEU ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ President Dr Alison Barnes said:
“It’s deeply disappointing but not at all surprising that the staggering wage theft figure is even higher than the NTEU first calculated,” Dr Barnes said.
“Even more sadly, the true figure will rise well beyond $107.8 million once ongoing cases are settled
“Systemic wage theft is endemic in our public universities. This is simply unacceptable.
“We need not only laws to criminalise wage theft, but legislation allowing unions to quickly recover stolen wages for their members.
“It’s a travesty that people can have the equivalent of house deposits stolen from them and then have to wait years to be paid back while universities are dragged kicking and screaming to do the right thing.
“We’re calling on the Federal Government to address wage theft through tackling its chief cause – insecure work.
“Wage theft in higher education is a deep crisis. We need urgent action to create the better universities that Australia deserves.”
