Fair Work Ombudsman
Citation: FWO-2025-06-12-griffith-university-eu-media-release
At a glance
- Penalty
- $8,340,000
- Employees affected
- 5457
What happened
Griffith University signed an Enforceable Undertaking with the Fair Work Ombudsman and will complete more than $8.34 million in payments, including interest and superannuation, to 5,457 underpaid staff. Affected employees worked across all four of Griffith's academic groups (Arts, Education and Law; Business; Health; Sciences) and all six of its Queensland campuses. They included full-time, part-time and casual academic, professional, support and fitness staff, and proctors. Griffith self-reported to the FWO in March 2022 after identifying underpayments under its enterprise agreements and two awards. The causes included insufficient training for course convenors and school administrators, weak onboarding data, and non-existent or insufficient payroll review processes.
What was decided
Under the EU, Griffith will complete the $8.34 million in back-pay and make a $175,000 contrition payment. It must also implement a broad compliance program. The figures are remediation and contrition, not a civil penalty. The review is ongoing.
What it means for employers
Academic pay systems fail at the ground level when course convenors and school administrators have not been trained on the enterprise agreement. If onboarding does not capture the correct classification and hours data, payroll will be wrong from day one. Training and onboarding data capture are compliance controls, not HR admin.
What it means for employees
Griffith casual academics, professional staff, support staff, fitness instructors and proctors may be owed back-pay. The university is contacting affected staff across all six campuses. If you think you have been missed, contact Griffith's remediation program or the FWO on 13 13 94.
Every statement above is drawn from the published decision. Read the original here:
https://www.fairwork.gov.au/newsroom/media-releases/2025-media-releases/june-2025/20250612-griffith-university-eu-media-releaseWant more cases like this?
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This summary was drafted by AI from the published decision and reviewed before publishing. It is general information, not legal advice. For your specific situation, speak to the Fair Work Ombudsman (13 13 94) or a qualified lawyer. About these summaries & corrections →