University of Tasmania signs EU to back pay $21.4m to over 10,000 staff

The University of Tasmania has signed an enforceable undertaking to complete over $20 million in payments to more than 10,000 underpaid staff.

The University of Tasmania (UTAS) will make more than $21.4 million in payments, including interest and superannuation, to over 10,000 underpaid staff as part of entering an enforceable undertaking (EU) with the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO).

The university has already rectified most underpayments identified to date, FWO said in a statement, and the review into its non-compliance remains ongoing, with UTAS having committed to rectifying any further underpayments identified.

Under the EU, UTAS must also make a contrition payment of $175,000 and implement a broad range of measures to ensure compliance with workplace laws going forward.

The underpayments, which occurred over a period of more than a decade, mostly concerned casual professional and academic staff in a variety of roles, but also full-time and part-time employees, and occurred across UTAS’ campuses in Hobart, Launceston, Burnie, and Sydney, along with several of their smaller campus locations.

Most such underpayments, the statement said, arose because of UTAS failing to pay casual professional staff for a minimum engagement period of at least three hours per shift, as required under its enterprise agreements.

UTAS also underpaid employees’ hourly rates of pay, weekend penalty rates, public holiday pay, overtime rates, various leave entitlements, termination payments, and various allowances, FWO continued, and the university breached the Fair Work Act by failing to keep accurate records of time worked by casual employees.

The university became aware of its underpayments when it conducted a self-initiated review, which was prompted by the FWO writing to all Australian universities in 2020 asking them to ensure they were compliant with workplace laws. It then self-reported its non-compliance to the FWO in 2021.

The more than $21 million UTAS is currently back paying relates to a total of 10,443 current and former employees it underpaid between March 2014 and July 2025.

It is made up of underpaid wages and entitlements exceeding $14.7 million, interest on top of this of more than $3.8 million, and superannuation (and interest on superannuation) of more than $2.8 million.

This news comes after enforceable undertakings signed by various other universities, including Monash University earlier this week, the Queensland University of Technology in November, the University of Wollongong in September, Griffith University in June, and La Trobe University in March.

Fair Work Ombudsman Anna Booth said that an EU was appropriate, as the university had cooperated with the FWO’s investigation and demonstrated a strong commitment to rectifying its non-compliance issues.

“UTAS deserves credit for acknowledging its breaches and the underlying issues, and committing significant time and resources to put in place corrective measures that will ensure both full remediation of impacted staff and improved compliance for the future,” she 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.

“Improving universities’ workplace compliance is a priority for the Fair Work Ombudsman.

“We’ve made important progress nationally, including through enforceable undertakings like this, and we look forward to continuing to work with the leadership teams at universities nationally to assist them to do the sustained, smart work required to ensure their employees benefit from full compliance with workplace laws.”