‘Massive victory’: Federal Court orders Torrens University to back pay 1,000 casual academics

In what has been described as a “historic win”, the Federal Court has granted an appeal to the Fair Work Ombudsman, upholding a 2024 compliance notice issued to Torrens University for underpaying over 1,000 casual academics.

In its decision on Tuesday (17 March), the Federal Court upheld the National Tertiary Education Union’s (NTEU) interpretation of the Higher Education Industry – Academic Staff Award, finding that Torrens University had underpaid staff through a “rolled-up” hourly rate under its interpretation of “associated working time”.

Currently, underpayments across Australia’s university sector exceed $284 million, with universities making a provision for a further $168 million, which takes the total beyond $450 million.

This decision upholds a compliance notice issued to Torrens University by the Fair Work Ombudsman in March 2024 concerning underpayments for casual lecturers employed by the university between 2014 and 2018.

In a 26 May 2025 Federal Court hearing, the university appealed this notice, leading to its cancellation. The university asserted that the term “associated working time” (set out in the award) must be directly related to the delivery of a particular lecture or tutorial.

In a 6 March 2026 hearing, the case returned to the Federal Court when the Fair Work Ombudsman appealed the cancellation of the compliance notice, with the court granting the appeal in its 17 March 2026 decision, reinstating the compliance notice.

In the hearing, the court rejected the university’s appeal grounds, determining that: “The amount of associated time actually spent is, of course, a matter for the employee and is not the subject of direction by the employer.”

It added that “associated working time” extends to all subjects taught by this lecturer, with a separate marking rate applying to subjects not taught by the lecturer.

Counsel for Torrens University conceded that on the correct interpretation of the award – as confirmed by the court – the university systematically underpaid all of its casual staff, estimated to be over 1,000 people, with long-serving casual staff owed thousands in back pay.

In a statement provided to HR Leader, the university said: "Torrens University will review the Full Court of the Federal Court’s judgment in detail and consider our next steps."

“The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) has consistently argued lecture and tutorial rates are not a blank cheque for universities to pile on unlimited unpaid work. Marking is separate work that must be paid separately,” said Dr Damien Cahill, general secretary at NTEU.

Historic win for casual workers across the sector

“This is a massive victory for the tens of thousands of casual academics who are victims of wage theft from doing hours of unpaid work,” Cahill said.

“This decision puts vice-chancellors on notice: the days of treating casual staff as an endless source of free labour are over.”

NTEU Victoria division secretary Sarah Roberts said the decision will make a real difference to the lives of the thousands of underpaid workers.

“Universities have been getting away with this for years – expecting casual academics to mark stacks of assessments for effectively nothing, buried in a rolled-up hourly rate that was never designed to cover it,” Roberts said.

“Universities should be in no doubt: the law is clear and strengthens our resolve to stop rampant wage theft.”

Roberts said casual roles have traditionally been seen as an easy solution to fill the university workforce, particularly for teaching and marking work.

She stressed that HR leaders must “taste the pie” rather than simply relying on their business partners to check that employees are being paid correctly, emphasising the importance of checking and ensuring that payroll is compliant.

There is a devolution of human resources out to the faculty and departmental level, Roberts said, arguing that if this continues, HR leaders cannot have any proper control over compliance.

“HR should invest more in compliance functions, and that’s not just in respect of workplace relations, but in respect of all matters of educational quality,” she said.

The case citation: Fair Work Ombudsman v Torrens University Australia Limited [2026] FCAFC 17.