00:00Unfortunate and regrettable. That's how the University of Adelaide has described
00:07revelations it underpaid more than 830 casual workers between March 2017 and May 2025.
00:16$1.25 million is owed to current and former academic staff. Broken down, that equates
00:22to an average of almost $1,500 per affected staff member.
00:28In an email to staff, University Vice-Chancellor Peter Hoy said the staff members were not
00:33paid the higher rates they were entitled to under the current Enterprise Agreement and
00:38or predecessor agreements. He said while the error affected less than 0.1 per cent of payments
00:43over the eight years, the University still deeply regrets that it occurred. The error
00:49was uncovered when the University audited its accounts in response to a spate of underpayment
00:54cases at universities across the country. Professor Hoy says the underpayments were a system breakdown.
01:01I have seen absolutely no cases of people knowingly underpaying their colleagues. The cause of it
01:10is the complexity of the arrangement we have in our industrial instruments.
01:17Education Union says more could be uncovered as the audit progresses.
01:21That could well be the tip of an iceberg because it's only going after certain elements of compliance
01:27with the Enterprise Agreement. So there could be more.
01:31The University says it's contacted affected staff and has started repaying them.
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