Over the next ten years, the University of Wollongong plans to repay $6.6 million to numerous employees who were undercompensated due to issues in its governance and payroll system.

The university realized the discrepancy in payments when inquiries from staff drew attention to the matter, leading to a self-disclosure to the Fair Work Ombudsman in 2023.

An audit revealed that over 5,340 employees were affected, mostly casual workers in non-teaching roles, predominantly at the Wollongong main campus.

However, some were also full-time and part-time employees in academic and support staff roles.

The university failed to ensure casual staff were compensated for at least three hours per shift and also did not properly pay the penalty rates owed.

It also underpaid employees’ weekend penalty rates, public holiday pay, overtime rates, leave entitlements, redundancy, severance and retirement. 

The institution has committed to a binding agreement with Fair Work to reimburse the 5,340 current and former employees who were underpaid between 2014 and 2024.

In total, $6.6 million will be disbursed, including over $4.9 million in unpaid salaries and entitlements, more than $1.1 million in interest, and upwards of $630,000 in superannuation with interest.

The payments to each individual ranges from less than $20 to more than $36,000. 

Most of the staff have already been paid.

The university has been unable to find about 200 former employees to pay them. 

The university will also make a contrition payment of $130,000 and implement measures to better comply with workplace laws, including commissioning two independent audits, maintaining an employee payments complaint and review mechanism and creating a standing body to foster consultation between the university, its employees and the union.

It will also be forced to make a second contrition payment after Fair Work finalises two matters still under review.

The contrition payments will go to the Commonwealth Consolidated Revenue Fund, which is a fund of all money raised or received by the government.

Fair Work Ombudsman Anna Booth said the university deserves credit for acknowledging its breaches and underlying issues and committing to actions to remediate impacted staff and improve future compliance.

“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,” she said.

“We expect universities to meet their legal obligations under their own enterprise agreements and underlying awards.”

9news.com.au has contacted the University of Wollongong for comment.