Over 1000 staff shortchanged $1.3 million due to payroll system errors
A university in Queensland has shortchanged current and former employees nearly $1.3 million due to widespread problems with its pay systems.
The Fair Work Ombudsman identified 1,038 staff being cut by CQ University, including academic and professional staff, VET trainers and student accommodation consultants.
Errors were found in base pay rates, overtime, minimum shift lengths for casual workers, promotion and advancement rights of academic staff, and leave entitlements and loadings, including public holidays.
The largest amount missing from any employee’s paycheck was $63,350, before interest and retirement.
The CQU also blamed staff errors, turnover and over-reliance on manual processes, as well as misconfiguration of the payroll system.
While the university has campuses in Queensland and Australia (including Rockhampton, Brisbane, Townsville and Sydney), most of the low-paid staff are based at the Rockhampton North campus, a Fair Work Ombudsman spokesperson told this imprint.
National Tertiary Education Association Queensland branch secretary Michael McNally said errors leading to underpayments were “entirely foreseeable”.
“The university had every opportunity to really invest in the systems they needed to pay these people properly — from members to individuals in the union to temporary staff who raised issues around payments,” he said.
“It certainly seems like they are making some effort right now… but they should have been doing that from the beginning.”
Many universities will correct underpayments on a case-by-case basis, but in most cases it’s evidence of a systemic problem, McNally said.
“We calculated the missing payments” [since 2020]”In Queensland, this figure reaches $29.4 million and approximately 26,000 staff are affected,” he said.
The university was ordered to pay $30,000 to the Fair Work Ombudsman as an initial fine.
This will be followed by a second fine, up to a maximum of $100,000, determined by the number of additional underpayments determined by the Ombudsman’s office.
As of May this year, CQU had repaid 875 current and former staff and owed just over $96,000 to the remaining 163 staff.
Vice-Chancellor Professor Nick Klomp said the university was committed to repaying every current and former staff member who had been underpaid.
“While all underpayments were unintentional, CQ University takes full responsibility,” he said.
He noted that the university had begun repaying staff and had reported itself to the Fair Work Ombudsman in 2023 after “proactively launching a comprehensive pay integrity review”.
“We have since established a dedicated pay integrity project team to correct underpayments and strengthen our systems, processes and staff awareness to prevent this situation from happening in the future,” Klomp said.
The vice-chancellor said an agreement with the Ombudsman would also enable the university to meet its commitments to independent auditing, providing transparent reporting and continuing to improve compliance.
Fair Work Ombudsman Anna Booth said the university deserved praise for its engagement with her office.
Start your day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.
