Griffith University underpaid staff by $8.3 million, Fair Work Ombudsman finds
Queensland's Griffith University will repay more than $8 million to thousands of underpaid employees, as part of an agreement with the national workplace watchdog.
The underpayments, which occurred between 2015 and 2024, affected approximately 5,457 current and former casual, academic and professional staff at all six of the university's south-east Queensland campuses.
Affected employees worked across the arts, education, law, business, health and sciences divisions, with the majority based in Brisbane.
In total, the workers will receive $8.34 million in back pay, including interest and superannuation.
Individual underpayments ranged from less than $1 to more than $92,400, according to the Fair Work Ombudsman.
The ombudsman said pay issues were caused by insufficient training among course convenors and school administrators, deficiencies in payroll systems, and a lack of data review processes.
The university self-reported to the national regulator in 2022.
Fair Work Ombudsman Anna Booth said the university had "cooperated with investigations" and had "demonstrated a strong commitment to rectifying its non-compliance issues".
"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," Ms Booth said.
"We expect universities to meet their legal obligations under their own enterprise agreements and underlying awards."
The university has entered an "enforceable undertaking" agreement with the ombudsman.
Under that agreement, it must make a contrition payment of $175,000, which will be paid to the not-for-profit Cleaning Accountability Framework, which helps ensure fair working conditions for cleaners.
It is also required to implement a range of measures to ensure compliance with workplace laws going forward.
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