Griffith University signs Enforceable Undertaking
Griffith University will complete more than $8.34 million in payments, including interest and superannuation, to 5,457 underpaid staff as part of entering into an Enforceable Undertaking (EU) with the Fair Work Ombudsman.
Under the EU, the public university that operates six campuses in Queensland 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 underpaid employees performed work across all four of Griffith University’s groups (Arts, Education and Law, Business, Health and Sciences) and all six of its campuses (one of which is a virtual campus) – though the majority were Brisbane-based.
They were variously engaged full-time, part-time and casually as academic, professional, support and fitness staff, and proctors.
The university self-reported non-compliance to the Fair Work Ombudsman in March 2022 having identified underpayments under its enterprise agreements and two awards.
The underpayments were caused by a combination of insufficient training among course convenors and school administrators, insufficient data collection in onboarding processes, insufficient or non-existent payroll and data review processes, lack of automation allowing for human error, and deficiencies in various payroll systems.
Griffith University failed to pay correct rates for initial and repeat tutorials and other academic activities as well as PhD qualification rates, subject coordination rates, initial session rates, proctor rates and research assistant rates.
It also did not correctly pay employees for minimum daily engagement periods, and did not pay fitness employees split shift and meal allowances. Progressions between pay bands were also incorrectly paid.
In total, Griffith University underpaid 5,457 current and former employees, and is back-paying more than $8.34 million, including interest and superannuation, for work performed between July 2015 and June 2024.
This is made up of underpaid wages that exceeded $5.95 million, interest on top of this of more than $1.55 million, and superannuation (and interest on superannuation) of about $830,000. To date, the university has remediated $5.83 million (excluding superannuation and interest) to 5,226 employees.
Individual underpayments ranged from less than $1 to more than $92,400, including superannuation and interest.
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.
“Griffith 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 and underlying awards.”
Ms Booth said the commitments secured under the Enforceable Undertaking, including a consultative body for improved collaboration between university management, employees and their union, would help to drive cultural change across Griffith University, and were an example for the wider university sector.
“Improving universities’ workplace compliance is a priority for the Fair Work Ombudsman. We look forward to working with the leadership teams at universities nationally to assist them to do the sustained, smart work required to ensure full compliance with workplace laws,” Ms Booth said.
Under the EU, Griffith University has committed to rectifying all outstanding underpayments in full, plus interest, and implementing a range of measures to ensure future compliance, including:
- updating payroll and record-keeping systems and giving the FWO information about the systems and processes it will implement to ensure future compliance;
- ensuring relevant staff complete additional training regarding their Fair Work obligations;
- commissioning, at its own cost, two independent audits to check it is meeting all employee entitlements – and rectifying any underpayments found;
- maintaining an employee payments complaint and review mechanism;
- establishing a standing body to provide a regular form for tripartite consultation between Griffith University, its employees and the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) on matters of workplace relations compliance;
- prioritising and embedding within its governing council the monitoring of compliance with Fair Work instruments; and
- informing staff of the EU through an intranet notice, all-staff email and written notice to affected employees.
The university’s contrition payment will be paid to the not-for-profit Cleaning Accountability Framework, which helps ensure fair working conditions for cleaners.
Since announcing in 2022 that addressing systemic non-compliance in the university sector was a priority, the Fair Work Ombudsman has also entered into Enforceable Undertakings with La Trobe University, University of Sydney, University of Melbourne, the University of Technology Sydney, the University of Newcastle and Charles Sturt University; secured court penalties against the University of Melbourne; and commenced ongoing legal action against the University of NSW.
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.
