
A prestigious university is facing court after the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) found it allegedly committed wage theft dating back six years.
Fair Work on Tuesday announced it has launched legal proceedings against the University of New South Wales (UNSW) for allegedly breaching laws relating to record-keeping, pay slips and frequency of wage payments.
Its investigations, based on a sample of 66 staff members, found the university allegedly breached the law from 2017 to 2022 and “knowingly” did so from 2018.
The Sydney-based university is accused of allegedly failing to make and keep records of hours, rates of pay and details owed to casual employees, failing to include lawfully required information in pay slips and failing to pay staff wages at least monthly for all hours worked.
Some staff were allegedly paid months after their rostered work days.
Fair Work said the university’s record-keeping practices were “so inadequate” it was difficult to even identify whether employees had been underpaid.
“Record-keeping is a crucial part of compliance with workplace laws, and this litigation and the penalties we will seek are a warning to all employers to prioritise getting records right,” Fair Work Ombudsman Anna Booth said.
“It is completely unacceptable for an employer’s record-keeping practices to be so poor that they prevent us from assessing what hours its employees have worked and whether it has paid its employees their full lawful entitlements.”
The accused university is facing up to $66,600 per offence and $666,000 per serious offence pending court decision.
(Sky News)