The University of Adelaide is currently under scrutiny following its admission of shortchanging over 830 former casual academic staff members by a total of $1.25 million across eight years.

The university revealed that these underpayments were discovered during an audit spanning from March 2017 to May 2025. This audit was part of an intensified effort to enhance payment accuracy amidst widespread industry issues with payroll discrepancies.

The investigation highlighted that numerous current and former casual academic staff, who either held a PhD or served as course coordinators, were not compensated at the higher pay rates they were entitled to receive.

As a result, a total of 838 staff members experienced a collective underpayment amounting to approximately $1.25 million.

“Although this accounts for less than 0.05 percent of salary distributions during this timeframe, it remains an unfortunate and deeply regrettable situation,” commented a spokesperson for the University of Adelaide.

The spokesperson also emphasized the institution’s sincere regret over the occurrence of these underpayments and assured that efforts to rectify the situation and compensate staff are underway with urgency.

“Impacted current and former staff have been contacted and repayments have started.”

The university has notified the Fair Work Ombudsman.

“We will continue to implement, enhance, and strengthen our processes and controls,” the spokesperson said.

“The university’s auditing and monitoring activities are continuing, and if any other instances of underpayments are identified, affected staff will be contacted by the university and remediated as quickly as possible.”

The Fair Work Ombudsman said it is investigating the underpayments.

“We expect any employers that identify non-compliance to fully cooperate with our investigations,” a spokesperson said in a statement.

“It is not appropriate to comment further.”

Any staff from the university who may have concerns should contact the ombudsman.

Fair Work began targeting systemic non-compliance in the university sector in 2022, which the National Tertiary Education Union has labelled as a “wage theft epidemic”.

The ombudsman has entered into enforceable undertakings with the University of Sydney, University of Technology Sydney, University of Newcastle, La Trobe University, University of Melbourne, Charles Sturt University and Griffith University.

It has won court penalties against the University of Melbourne and has ongoing legal action against the University of NSW. 

The University of Wollongong has recently repaid $6.6 million to more than 5000 underpaid staff.