9 December 2025

Monash University will complete more than $20.7 million in payments, including interest and superannuation, to 10,877 underpaid staff as part of entering into an Enforceable Undertaking (EU) with the Fair Work Ombudsman.

Under the EU, the Melbourne-based university must also make a contrition payment of $350,000 to the Consolidated Revenue Fund and implement a broad range of measures to ensure compliance with workplace laws going forward.

Underpayments occurred across an 11-year period and impacted employees across all 10 of Monash University’s faculties.

Underpaid employees were mainly casual academic sessional staff and a smaller group of casual research assistants.

Monash University failed to pay correct rates for original and repeat tutorials; did not meet its minimum engagement obligations for activities performed; and underpaid rates for original lectures and tutorials. It failed to meet entitlements as set out under multiple enterprise agreements.

Compared with other faculties, much higher proportions of Information Technology and Medicine, Nursing and Health Science workers were underpaid (about 26 per cent each); with the next highest being about 18 per cent of Engineering faculty workers and about 15 per cent of Science faculty workers.

The lowest percentage of underpaid staff was found in the Law and Art Design & Architecture faculties, with less than one per cent each, followed by Arts with less than two per cent.

Monash University self-reported non-compliance to the FWO in September 2021, having identified underpayments. It made a subsequent disclosure in December 2024.

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

“Monash University 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,” Ms Booth 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.”

Ms Booth said the commitments secured under the Enforceable Undertaking, including a Compliance Reference Group for improved collaboration between university management, employees and their union, would help to drive cultural change across Monash University, and were an example for the wider university sector.

“Improving universities’ workplace compliance is a priority for the Fair Work Ombudsman. Important progress has been made nationally, and we look forward to continuing to work with the leadership teams at universities to assist them to do the sustained, smart work required to ensure employees benefit from full workplace laws compliance,” Ms Booth said.

The underpayments were caused by incorrect activity descriptions being entered into timesheets, and inconsistent descriptions for the same work activity in core documents (such as timetables, unit guides and handbooks).

In total, Monash University underpaid 10,877 current and former employees, and is back-paying more than $20.7 million, including interest and superannuation, for work performed between January 2014 and January 2025.

This is made up of underpaid wages of almost $15 million, interest on top of this of more than $3.8 million, and superannuation of about $1.9 million. To date, the university has remediated about $20.5 million (including superannuation and interest) to more than 10,400 employees.

Across the university’s two self-disclosures, individual underpayments ranged from less than $5 to more than $210,000, including superannuation and interest. The average underpayment in the 2021 self-report was about $5,300, and in last year’s about $1,000.

Under the EU, Monash University has committed to rectifying all outstanding underpayments in full, plus interest and superannuation, and implementing a range of measures to ensure future compliance, including:

• establishing a tripartite Compliance Reference Group for improved collaboration between university management, employees and their union
• an all-staff email about the EU, and telling former workers in writing
• informing the FWO about systems and processes it is implementing / has implemented to meet its obligations going forward under Fair Work instruments, including a streamlined timesheet process and a teaching calendar tool
• ensuring all current employees of Monash with responsibility for approving timesheets have undertaken training regarding payments to casual academic staff under the relevant industrial instrument
• commissioning an independent audit to assess compliance and rectifying any underpayments identified
• maintaining a complaints and review mechanism for employees who think they have not got their entitlements
• prioritising and embedding with its council through the Audit and Risk Committee monitoring of its compliance with the Fair Work instruments.

Since announcing in 2022 that addressing systemic non-compliance in the university sector was a priority, the Fair Work Ombudsman has also entered into 9 other Enforceable Undertakings with QUT, University of Wollongong, Griffith University, La Trobe University, University of Sydney, University of Melbourne, the University of Technology Sydney, the University of Newcastle and Charles Sturt University.

Separate to its EUs, the regulator also secured court penalties against the University of Melbourne. Its legal action against the University of NSW continues.

Employers and employees can call the Fair Work Infoline on 13 13 94 or visit www.fairwork.gov.au for free advice and assistance. An interpreter service is available on 13 14 50. Employees can also seek information from their employer or their union, if they are a union member. Employers can seek information from their employer association if they are a member, and also use the FWO’s pay calculator.