Monash admits to $8.6min wage theft

Ben Eltham, Monash Branch President

After the NTEU Monash Branch lodged a notice of concern about the widespread practice of wage theft, Monash University – Australia's largest university by enrolment – disclosed a figure of $8.6 million in an email to staff members in September.

Monash joins some of Australia's largest and most prestigious universities in the wage theft shame pile. The $8.6 million dates back to 2014 and involves widespread, systematic underpayment ofcasual teachers. Monash has been routinely re-classifying tutorials as 'practicals', 'demonstrations', 'laboratories' and 'studios' in order to avoid paying casual academics at the tutorial rate. Instead they are being paid at the 'Other Required Academic Activity' rate, which is one third of the tutorial rate.

NTEU has obtained emails instructing lecturers and unit coordinators not to use the word 'tutorial' in any class materials. Many tutors who continued to submit their pay at the old rate had their payslips rejected.

There are serious quality implications. Tutorial rates are designed to ensure that tutors have some paid time to prepare for their classes and mark assessments.

A one-hour tutorial is meant to cover three hours of teaching work: one hour for the class, and two hours for preparation, marking and student consultation. But casual tutors paid at the 'other' rate only receive a flat rate for hours in the classroom: they do not get paid to prepare for classes. The NTEU believes many students at Monash are taught by teachers who are not paid to prepare for their classes.

The more the Branch digs, the more wage theft we find. Just yesterday we learned that the Monash Library system stopped paying penalty rates for Library staff in August. No explanation was offered by the University.

For Monash's part, their view is that this is all an unfortunate mistake. The Branch has received two letters from the Provost, Professor Sue Elliott, in which we were instructed not to use the term 'wage theft'. Monash prefers the term 'unintentional underpayment.'

Senior management at Monash average $500,000 a year in salaries, while Vice-Chancellor Margaret Gardner takes home $1.3 million. It's a fair bet none of these salaries have been 'unintentionally underpaid'.

Council are now facing serious scrutiny from regulators. The Fair Work Ombudsman is involved – Monashmade a voluntary disclosure – and the Branch is also preparing a disclosure to the quality regulator TEQSA. The Branch believes Monash's chair, Rio Tinto director Simon McKeon, also has questions to answer. ◆

Ben Eltham, Monash Branch President