The National Tertiary Education Union has welcomed Deakin University's pledge to backpay casual staff underpaid almost $3 million.
The university announced on Tuesday it would start repayments, with roughly 440 staff affected by $2.9 million in underpayments over eight years.
NTEU members have engaged in a long-running campaign including allegations of systemic underpayment of casual academics in the Fair Work Commission.
The total figure is expected to rise beyond $2.9 million as more staff come forward.
Deakin has previously acknowledged underpayments to sessional staff following union pressure and investigation into unlawful piece-rate-style payment practices for marking.
The latest Deakin revelations take the national confirmed university wage theft tally beyond $284 million.
Universities have made provisions for a further $168 million in underpayments, with the combined figure now more than $450 million.
NTEU Deakin Branch President Professor Reece Walters said the announcement was a hard-won and long-overdue outcome.
"This is a major victory for NTEU members at Deakin who have fought hard against wage theft over many years," he said.
"To management's credit, they are working with the NTEU to repay the staff owed millions of dollars.
"There's almost certainly more people affected than just this initial announcement so we'll be working hard to ensure every staff member past and present gets every cent they're owed.
"We're encouraging all casual Deakin staff who believe they may have been underpaid to contact the NTEU for advice and support."
NTEU Victoria Division Secretary Sarah Roberts said Victoria continues to be ground zero for university underpayments.
"Once again we're seeing casual staff bearing the brunt of wage theft, which speaks volumes about the devastating impact of rampant casualisation across our universities," she said.
"The fact that casualised workers continue to be the primary victims of wage theft is a direct consequence of universities' deliberate strategies to maximise insecure employment."
NTEU National President Dr Alison Barnes said the situation at Deakin was part of a much wider problem.
"University wage theft is a national disgrace that demands national action," she said.
"The NTEU won't take a backwards step in our campaign for major reform of the broken university governance model that's allowed wage theft to become baked into business models.
"We need governments to make university executives accountable for wage theft, casualisation and other serious issues in our public institutions."
Contact details:
Matt Coughlan 0400 561 480 / [email protected]
