Wage theft uncovered at UWA

Comrade Seb denounces wage theft and casualisation at the University of Western Australia.

Having previously been identified in the National Tertiary Educators Union (NTEU) Wage Theft Report (2023), the University of Western Australia (UWA) has recently been ordered to backpay $10.6 million in superannuation to current and former staff following a decade of wage theft.

After incorrectly applying superannuation entitlements for an extended period on some allowances and leave entitlements, such as long service leave, the backpay is calculated to also include $4 million in interest.

Its set to affect 5500 former and 2700 current employees, with the figure set to rise after the university conducts a review of payments for casual employees.

According to the UWA’s vice-chancellor professor Amit Chakma, the underpayment was due to: “differing interpretation of legislative changes and inconsistent understanding of Enterprise Agreement obligations”, but it beggars belief that Western Australia’s wealthiest university and its well-funded legal and HR department simply failed to understand and apply their legal obligations.

The NTEU Wage Theft Report (2023) identified a whopping $159 million in underpayments nationally across the higher education sector, revealing underpayments as a systematic issue.

The systematic nature of the issue was also highlighted by the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) after identifying underpayments and workplace protections in Australia’s Universities as a ‘strategic priority’ in recent years. The FWO politely described the universities workplace culture as one of ‘entrenched non-compliance with workplace agreements’.

Having had funded cut for universities in repeated federal austerity budgets, universities have become increasingly corporatised and reliant upon casualised labour. Taken from the Australian Universities Accord Final Report Document (2024):

“The proportion of casual staff has risen considerably since 1995”, and that “Universities use casual contracts for many different roles, including in response to changing financial structures and revenue streams (including Government funding)” with ‘some elements of the higher education sector becoming reliant on the use of casual staff, especially for teaching-only roles’. Concluding: “Casual pay rates, including the complexity of piece rates and activity misclassification, are the primary causes of wage theft in the higher education sector – an untenable situation”.

According to the NTEU: “Two thirds of all staff at Australian universities are employed insecurely through casual or fixed term arrangements even though most of the work they perform is needed on an ongoing basis”. “Casual workers can be subject to power inequities and fear of reprisal – including the loss of work. Many workers are reluctant to raise complaints over underpayment, or to ask for compensation for hours worked for free when they require contract renewals every teaching period”

The casualisation of the workforce is the scourge of universities and higher education, deprived of sick leave and job security, high rates of casual working arrangements also drive wage theft.

The continuing existence of casualised labour contracts will undermine any attempt to eliminate and reduce wage theft in higher education. The systematic nature of the issue also requires a systematic solution:

Abolish the outmoded capitalist profit system in order to combat the rampant corporatisation and inequality of higher education run by unaccountable vice-chancellors – many of whom pocket more than $1 million a year in salary packages. Organise society rationally based on human needs rather than corporate profits.