Central Queensland University underpaid staff by $1.3 million, Fair Work finds

Central Queensland University (CQU) has been ordered to pay $1.3 million in entitlements to former and current staff after discovering significant underpayments. The discrepancies, which began with the 2012 enterprise agreement, were self-reported by the university to the Fair Work Ombudsman in April 2023.

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We wanted to be really open and saying, 'You know what? We've done the wrong thing.'

The university attributed the errors to a faulty payroll system that was not correctly configured for certain awards, compounded by a heavy reliance on manual processes. These issues led to staff errors, resulting in one employee being underpaid by over $63,000. The underpayments affected a broad range of employees, including academics, professional staff, and vocational trainers.

In response, CQU has signed an enforceable undertaking with the Fair Work Ombudsman. Vice-chancellor Nick Klomp acknowledged the university's wrongdoing and stated that a dedicated "wage integrity" team has been established. He also cited "complicated awards" and a lack of awareness among some supervisors regarding entitlements as contributing factors. CQU has committed to more frequent audits and enhanced training to ensure such an incident does not recur.

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Often, the university will sort out problems for the individual staff member when you raise an issue, but getting them to do a systemic review has taken the ombudsman getting involved.

While CQU's recovery figure is considered on the lower end compared to other Australian universities facing similar issues, the National Tertiary Education Union highlighted that systemic reviews often require ombudsman intervention. The union stressed the importance of universities investing in robust payroll systems to ensure staff are paid accurately and in full.

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It's symptomatic of the way universities treat their staff. They really should have ensured that they had the systems in place and that people were paid every dollar that they're owed.