University of Canberra found 255 casual staff underpaid almost $250,000
A review found University of Canberra underpaid 255 casual academics $243,979.95 between 2019 and 2025.
University of Canberra reviewed payments to casual academic staff from July 2019 to December 2025. The review found 255 current and former staff were paid incorrectly.
The total underpayment was $243,979.95, excluding superannuation and interest. Some errors came from PhD qualifications not being recognised in pay rates.
Other staff were not paid for convener work. The university is separately reviewing marking payments.
The university paid casual professional staff about $1.5 million in underpayments. This covered the same six-year period.
Vice-Chancellor Bill Shorten apologised. He said casual workers deserve equal treatment with permanent staff.
University of Canberra became the first university to agree to pay casual staff 17 per cent superannuation.
- 255 staff
- Casual academics underpaid
- $243,979.95
- Academic underpayment total
- $1.5 million
- Professional staff underpayment
- July 2019 to December 2025
- Review period
Why it mattersCasual workers often live paycheque to paycheque. Underpayment directly affects their financial security. It also reveals system problems across the university sector.
AustraliaUniversity of Canberra is directly affected and the issue highlights a sector-wide problem; the union estimates hundreds of millions of dollars in underpayments across Australian universities.
✓ Claims checked against the source and corrected before publish. checked 3 h ago
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