Class action puts university sector on notice over wage theft

Australia's beleaguered university sector has been put on notice over long-running exploitation of casual staff, as private university Torrens prepares to defend the first known wage theft class action in the Federal Court.The American owner of Torrens also revealed it had budgeted more than $20 million to compensate casual academics for historic underpayments, with lawyers for the lead plaintiff saying the true bill could be far higher.Lawyers for staff estimated more than 1,000 casual academic staff were not paid for marking student work and other routine tasks for at least six years, despite provisions in their award."It's taken an enormous toll on the staff," said lawyer Hayden Stephens, who is running the class action.Hayden Stephens says he hopes the class action will put the sector on notice. (Supplied: Adam Taylor)"You have to remember that marking an assessment is an enormous or significant burden in the work of a casual academic, and for that work not to be recognised by their employer, is obviously wrong and in breach of the award, but carries with it an emotional toll."The Fair Work Ombudsman, with the support of the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU), has already established in a case before the full Federal Court that Torrens staff were not paid for marking in breach of their award.Torrens was declined leave to appeal to the High Court.According to earnings reports filed last week in the US by its American owner, Strategic Education Inc, the university has set aside more than $20 million to compensate staff directly.Torrens University has set aside $20 million to compensate staff. (ABC News: Billy Cooper)Strategic Education did not give an estimate of its potential liability in the class action but told the market it intended to defend the claim "vigorously". Mr Stephens, who has interviewed dozens of casual academics, said the $20 million figure Torrens University acknowledged it owed staff in back pay appeared "grossly inadequate"."The devil is in the detail, and so far Torrens has given casual academics none of it. Will Torrens pay for the hours people actually worked? Will lecturers get access to the records they need to check their own figures?" Mr Stephens said."Workers who have already been underpaid should not have to take the word of Torrens or its US owner. Any remediation of this scale should be independent and verified under the supervision of the court."Torrens University declined to comment, citing the court action, but noted a statement on its website that said it was "working to remediate staff".The statement said staff had been paid for marking since March 2026. The university has operated in Australia since 2014 but the statute of limitations for back pay was six years.Mr Stephens said the first known wage theft class action should put the entire university sector on notice to improve its treatment of staff."It's significant for the brazen way in which Torrens chose to ignore this duty to pay casual academics. Our fear is that if one university is allowed to behave this way, others will," Mr Stephens said.'It's appalling'The lead plaintiff in the case, Tito Scohel, taught at Torrens University between 2023 and 2025, motivated to train the next generation of community, youth and mental health support workers."I enjoyed the job. I still like the job. I'm still teaching. I love it," Mr Scohel saidBut he said the university's failure to pay him for marking as well as other academic tasks like moderation, meetings and student consultations left him struggling to pay his rent."People worked three to four jobs to survive because none of them were paid the right level of payment," Mr Scohel said.Tito Scohel says he could not pay his rent while working for the university. (Supplied )"Most of the academics that I have, my colleagues, they are doctorate or having two or three masters. And, you know, the payment they received is very nominal. It's appalling."Since ABC News first revealed wage theft at four universities in 2020, problems have been revealed across the sector, and the NTEU said 205,235 staff had now been repaid $341,092,552."We're looking at really industrial-scale wage theft that's been baked into their business models. And unfortunately, the problem never seems to be resolved. There's never the proper accountability, there's no proper transparency," NTEU president Alison Barnes said.Most of the cases have been at public universities, but Dr Barnes said the Torrens case could be the first of many more to come at private providers."We're really concerned about this conduct. I suspect Torrens is the tip of the iceberg," she said.