Monash University ordered to repay more than $20m to staff after Fair Work underpayment case

Monash University will repay more than $20.7 million to 10,877 current and former staff after admitting widespread underpayments stretching back over eleven years, the Fair Work Ombudsman has confirmed. The Melbourne-based institution entered into an Enforceable Undertaking (EU) with the regulator to resolve the matter, which had major implications for casual academic staff and research assistants across the university’s faculties.

The repayments, which cover work performed between January 2014 and January 2025, include almost $15 million in underpaid wages, more than $3.8 million in interest, and approximately $1.9 million in superannuation. To date, around $20.5 million has already been paid out to more than 10,400 workers, and Monash has pledged to rectify all remaining underpayments in full.

Underpayments were uncovered through internal reviews and self-reported to the Fair Work Ombudsman in September 2021, with a further disclosure in December 2024. The issues stemmed from incorrect activity descriptions in timesheets and inconsistencies between unit guides, timetables and payroll records, leading to failures to pay correct rates for tutorials, lecture work and minimum engagement periods under multiple enterprise agreements.

The underpayments were unevenly distributed across faculties. About 26% of staff in Information Technology and Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences were affected, compared with lower levels in Law and Arts. Individual underpayment amounts ranged from less than $5 to more than $210,000.

As part of the EU, Monash will also make a $350,000 contrition payment to the Commonwealth Consolidated Revenue Fund and put in place a suite of measures designed to strengthen payroll compliance and workplace checks. These include a tripartite Compliance Reference Group bringing together management, staff and unions, improved timesheet and teaching calendar systems, targeted training for managers approving timesheets, an independent audit and ongoing oversight via the university’s Audit and Risk Committee.

Fair Work Ombudsman Anna Booth said Monash deserved credit for acknowledging the issues and committing to corrective action, while also underscoring the importance of robust payroll compliance across the higher education sector.