QUT signs EU following underpayments totalling $1.9m

Queensland University of Technology (QUT) has made more than $1.9 million in back payments to hundreds of underpaid staff and signed an enforceable undertaking (EU) with the Fair Work Ombudsman.

QUT has entered an EU with the Fair Work Ombudsman to back pay 433 staff for $1.9 million in underpayments since the establishment of its enterprise agreement in 2019.

This $1.9 million back payment by QUT was made up of wages and entitlements exceeding $1.75 million, with interest of more than $143,000, and superannuation (including superannuation interest) of more than $24,000.

The underpayments impacted staff at the university’s Gardens Point and Kelvin Grove campuses in Brisbane, across five faculties.

“Underpayments found occurred under the 2014, 2018 and 2022 Professional Staff enterprise agreements,” the ombudsman said.

“Payments to impacted individual employees range from less than $10 to more than $78,000, including superannuation and interest.”

Many of the underpaid staff worked in a range of non-teaching professional service roles, including administration officers, research assistants and IT event staff. Of the 433 staff who were underpaid, 366 worked in full-time or part-time roles; the rest were employed as casuals.

A large proportion of these underpayments were through its failure to “pay overtime, time off in lieu of overtime, minimum rates for ordinary hours, meal allowances, casual loading, and the casual professional minimum engagement period payment under the relevant enterprise agreement,” FWO said.

These underpayments involved breaches of the university’s own enterprise agreements, which it first became aware of in 2019; it first self-reported its compliance audits to the ombudsman in 2021.

The ombudsman found that the university’s “poor governance processes” and “fundamental payroll system errors” were “key causes” of these underpayments.

Under the enforceable undertaking, QUT has committed to a range of measures to ensure compliance, including the commissioning of an external auditor to conduct a comprehensive external review (CER) to identify and rectify any further underpayments identified.

This review will go over casual, fixed-term entitlements that applied to employees across the university and QUT College/International College between the commencement in 2019, of the Professional and Academic 2018 Enterprise Agreements and the start date of the enforceable undertaking.

Additionally the ombudsman ordered the university to make a contrition payment of $250,000 to ensure compliance with workplace laws moving forward, through a broad range of measures. This payment will go towards the not-for-profit Cleaning Accountability Framework, aimed at ensuring fair working conditions for cleaners.

Fair Work Ombudsman Anna Booth (pictured) said: “The matter serves as a warning of the significant long-running problems that can result from an employer failing to have appropriate checks and balances to ensure workplace compliance.

“We expect universities to meet their legal obligations under their own enterprise agreements and underlying awards.

“The commitments secured under the EU will help drive cultural change across the university, including through QUT’s education campaigns for all staff regarding entitlements under the enterprise agreements, and standing agenda items for various governance committees to discuss EU obligations.”