A timesheet processing issue caused about 2900 ANU casual staff to miss out on payments. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
Casual sessional academics will start receiving owed wages from the Australian National University after “complex” calculations caused an almost year-long delay in payments.
The ANU found about $2 million in unpaid wages following an investigation sparked by the Fair Work Commission.
The missing money spanned an 11-year period and initially the ANU thought it would take about 10 to 12 weeks to pay back impacted staff.
Chief People Officer Katie Witenden updated the community on 26 June, stating the university had been working with KPMG to calculate the payments owed to each staff member.
“These calculations were more complex than we originally estimated, which in turn affected the timeframes,” she said.
“We also need to build new capacity in our backend HR system to manage this work.
“I apologise unreservedly for the delay.”
Ms Witenden said calculations had been completed for outstanding timesheet payments for casual sessional academics. Payments to these people will begin from 7 July, prioritising current staff.
It’s estimated 2900 current and former staff were affected by the unprocessed casual timesheet issue.
The unprocessed casual timesheets issue came about because submitted hours/units that weren’t actioned or approved weren’t automatically included in payroll for processing.
“The error occurred because the timesheets were only visible to supervisors for a period of two weeks,” an ANU support page noted.
“After this time, timesheets were no longer visible and consequently could not be actioned by supervisors.
“The University has taken immediate steps to rectify this system error.”
Interest on the payments has been calculated at a nominal rate of 8.35 per cent per annum from the time the payment should have been made up until 30 June, 2025.
Interest on superannuation has been assessed at a nominal rate of 10 per cent per annum.
Former staff will need to update their details with the ANU for the payments to be made. The ANU has sent a link to former staff to complete these details.
The ANU voluntarily reported the missing payments to the Fair Work Ombudsman when they were discovered.
Staff who believe they have been impacted by these issues, but have not been contacted by the ANU, have been encouraged to contact the university.
The ANU is still working with KPMG to work through payment calculations for about 120 staff who were impacted by issues with on-call availability allowances.
A review into the situation is continuing.
“It has been identified that there are some additional considerations that require attention by the University,” the ANU stated.
“As a result, the timeframe of the review will be extended for both the Casual Professional Staff and the Emergency Availability allowance payments.”
