The University of Melbourne is set to face the Federal Court over allegations of coercement and adverse action against two casual academics which prevented them from claiming payment for work performed.
In documents filed in the Federal Court, the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) alleged that the university took adverse action against one of the academics when it decided not to offer her any further teaching work after she claimed payment for extra work done during the Summer Semester 2021 and made a number of complaints or inquiries to the university.
The FWO further stated that the University threatened not to re-employ the two academics with their supervisor allegedly saying words to the effect of “if you claim outside your contracted hours, don’t expect work next year”.
The academics were under contracts that set out a number of “anticipated hours” per subject. The FWO reported that the academics complained about being required to work more hours than the anticipated hours in their contracts and were thus threatened so they would not exercise their right to be paid for the extra hours.
The FWO alleged that the first adverse action breach and coercion occurred when the academics’ supervisor allegedly threatened not to re-employ them during a Zoom video conference meeting in August 2020, while the second adverse action breach occurred in or around February 2021 when the supervisor decided not to offer any further casual teaching contracts to one of the academics who raised the matter of unpaid hours. The University continues to employ the other academic in its Melbourne Graduate School of Education.
The legal action comes after the FWO announced in June that academic sector would be one of its top compliance and enforcement priorities.
Fair Work Ombudsman Sandra Parker said the University of Melbourne’s alleged conduct impacted on fundamental employee rights, and commencing legal action to seek penalties was in the public interest.
“We treat allegations of employers taking action to stop or prevent employees from claiming their lawful entitlements very seriously. Adverse action and coercion directly undermine workplace laws and the ability of employees to exercise their lawful rights,” Parker said. “We are currently investigating a range of underpayment issues in the universities sector, including failures to pay casual academics for all hours worked.
“Employers should have proactive measures in place to ensure they are meeting workplace laws,” Parker added. “If employers become aware of concerns their employees may be being underpaid, the only appropriate response is to check that they are paying their employees correctly and promptly rectify any compliance issues discovered.”
In addition to this case, the FWO is also investigating at the moment the alleged underpayment of University of Melbourne casual academic employees.
At the time the alleged adverse action and coercion breaches occurred, the University of Melbourne had employed the two affected academics on a series of short-term casual teaching contracts – since at least 2016 and 2017, respectively – in its Melbourne Graduate School of Education.
The Fair Work Ombudsman is seeking penalties against the University of Melbourne for the alleged contraventions of the Fair Work Act. The maximum penalty per breach is $66,600. The Fair Work Act states that it is unlawful for an employer to take adverse action against a person because a person exercises a workplace right or to prevent them from doing so. The law also states that it is unlawful for a person to take or threaten to take any action against another person with the intent to coerce them to not exercise a workplace right.
In addition to penalties, the regulator is seeking a court order for the University to pay compensation to the two academics for loss arising from the contraventions.
A date for a directions hearing in the Federal Court in Melbourne has yet to be listed.
