Last updated: Monday 25 August 2025
The University self-disclosed the risk of staff underpayments to the Fair Work Ombudsman in 2020.
Since then, a team of HR, Legal and Workplace Relations experts has been working with faculties and University schools to identify past incorrect payments and remediate affected staff.
As of 15 August 2025, the University has made remediation payments to more than 15,000 current and former professional and academic staff.
Following review and remediation for professional staff, our historical review of past payments for casual academic staff is now well advanced. Remediation for any identified underpayments of casual academic staff is expected to be completed by mid-2026.
Alongside this historical review and remediation, we have established standardised systems, processes and controls to help ensure we pay our people correctly and meet our recordkeeping obligations, now and into the future.
The University is continuing to keep the Fair Work Ombudsman informed about the progress of the review and entered into an Enforceable Undertaking on 10 December 2024. This agreement outlines the work undertaken to date and the University’s commitment to ensure ongoing compliance with workplace laws.
The University will notify any former staff identified as affected by past underpayment via their personal email address and phone number.
If you have been contacted by the University and advised that you are affected by past underpayment, please follow the directions provided including confirming your contact, banking and superannuation details.
If you have been asked to confirm your details, please complete the secure online form. Please note that remediation processing usually takes approximately 4 to 6 weeks after your details have been received.
Multiple attempts will be made to contact affected former staff over several months. If a former staff member cannot be located within six months, the University is required to pay the underpayment amount to the Commonwealth of Australia in accordance with Section 559 of the Fair Work Act. You can do a search on the Fair Work Ombudsman webpage to find out if any unpaid remediation is being held in trust for you.
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the University’s Shared Service Centre on +61 2 9351 2000 or hr.servicecentre@sydney.edu.au.
Current staff can find more information about the employee payments review including Q&As on the staff intranet page (Unikey login required).
We must ensure we are paying our people correctly for the valuable work they do in accordance with the Enterprise Agreement and workplace laws. The purpose of the Employee Payments Review (EPR) program is to ensure our people are paid correctly for any past work they were requested to undertake, as well as for all current and future allocated work.
On 13 August 2020, the University self-notified the Fair Work Ombudsman that it had recently become aware of instances of potential non-compliance with its obligations under the Enterprise Agreement.
Yes, the University is committed to continuing to keep the Fair Work Ombudsman informed about the Employee Payments Review program, including the progress and outcomes of the historical review and staff remediation. The University entered into an Enforceable Undertaking with the Fair Work Ombudsman in December 2024.
An Enforceable Undertaking is a legally binding written agreement between the Fair Work Ombudsman and an employer who has contravened a workplace law.
Enforceable Undertakings are often used in cases where the employer is prepared to voluntarily fix the issue and commits to preventative actions for the future. An enforceable undertaking usually includes the employer’s acknowledgement that the law has not been followed, commitments to remedy the situation and measures to prevent future non-compliance.
The University is keeping the NTEU and CPSU informed through regular scheduled meetings.
As well as a University program team including HR, Legal, Workplace Relations and ICT specialists, Ashurst law firm and PwC Australia are assisting with the detailed historical review and staff remediation.
The scale and complexity of the program requires a large team of dedicated and specialised resources, including University employees, contractors and consultants.
Much of the work to date has been investigating and calculating instances of historical underpayment to inform remediation payments for our staff. This has involved analysing multiple sources of historic information over a period of 13 semesters to correctly classify the work completed, identify any incorrect payments and calculate the correct individual remediation amounts.
External consultants have been engaged to provide independent advice and assist with this complex, specialised work so we can remediate staff as quickly as possible.
Yes, the first two phases of the Employee Payments Review Program focused on identifying and remediating professional staff affected by past underpayments. The University has paid remediation to more than 13,600 former and current professional staff, mostly casual professional staff.
The historical practices review focusing on casual academic staff is being completed on a school-by-school basis for the identified priority schools. This was considered to be the most efficient way to identify non-compliant payment practices and any staff who may have been underpaid during the period from March 2017 to June 2024.
These schools were prioritised for detailed review as faculty survey results, payroll analysis and individual claims indicated past work allocation practices that may not have aligned with our Enterprise Agreement. The review involves an Employee Payments Review team identifying and sourcing available historic records over a period of 13 semesters, with assistance from faculty and University School staff. These records are then reviewed against the Enterprise Agreement to identify any incorrect classification and paycode allocation for casual academic work.
We expect to continue the historical practices review for identified priority schools on a school-by-school basis up until Quarter 4 2025. As each school is reviewed, it will move to the remediation stage where underpayments are identified and calculated, and affected former and current casual academic staff are contacted and paid.
Some overpayments have been identified during the employee payments review. When the review identifies that a former or current staff member has been overpaid for a work activity, the University will not seek to recover the overpayment amount. However, if the review also identifies that the same individual has been underpaid for another work activity, the calculation of the remediation payment will incorporate the overpayment.
It is a review of Live Performance Award entitlements for staff at the Seymour Centre and Conservatorium of Music who are covered under this Award.
System and process improvements have been made to ensure entitlements are correctly calculated and paid in line with the Live Performance Award and a detailed payroll analysis is being undertaken to identify and remediate historical underpayments of Live Performance Award entitlements.
The University will attempt to contact affected former staff via their personal email address and phone number.
You can confirm your details by completing the secure online form. Please note that remediation processing usually takes approximately 4 to 6 weeks after your details have been received. Once processed, you will receive a detailed remediation letter to your personal email several days before payment, followed by payment including interest.
The University will make multiple attempts to notify affected former staff via their personal email address and phone number over several months.
If a former staff member cannot be located within six months, the University is required to pay the underpayment amount to the Commonwealth of Australia in accordance with Section 559 of the Fair Work Act.
You can do a search on the Fair Work Ombudsman webpage to find out if any unpaid remediation is being held in trust for you.
You can email the Fair Work Ombudsman at UnclaimedMonies@fwo.gov.au to arrange receipt of your payment. The Fair Work Ombudsman will contact you to confirm your identity before processing your payment.
If you think you may have been paid incorrectly, you can lodge an underpayment claim within six years of the date of the payment. You will be required to provide evidence to support your claim.
You can call the University’s Shared Services Centre on (02) 9351 2000 or email hr.servicecentre@sydney.edu.au for assistance.
The remediation process is complex and time-consuming, as multiple sources of historic information need to be analysed over a period of 13 semesters, so we can identify any incorrect payments and calculate any remediation amounts. We appreciate your patience as we continue to work through this process.
Remediation is continuing to be calculated and paid after each school is reviewed. All remediation for casual academic staff is expected to be paid by the June 2026 timeframe agreed with the Fair Work Ombudsman.
Yes, your personal remediation and payment details will remain confidential in line with the University's Staff Privacy Statement, and will not be shared with anyone for any purpose other than reviewing and processing your underpayment claim.
The remediation payments are being carefully calculated and will include superannuation and interest.
Yes, the University is required to comply with its obligations to withhold tax from all staff salary and wage payments (including remediation payments for previous financial years) and to report those amounts to the Australian Taxation Office.
The University is required to withhold tax from staff salary and wage payments (including remediation payments for previous and current financial years) at the rate prescribed by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO). Remediation payments are included on the PAYG payment summary for the year when the remediation payment is made. However, the ATO’s lump sum payment in arrears tax offset prevents you from being disadvantaged if you receive a lump sum payment in a later income year. Please contact your financial and/or tax advisor if you have any questions or concerns.
In 2020, the University of Sydney commenced a review of its compliance with the University of Sydney Enterprise Agreement 2013-2017 and the University of Sydney Enterprise Agreement 2018-2021. As a result of this review, the University determined that it had contravened the agreements and the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) by underpaying employees their entitlements. The majority of employees identified as affected by an underpayment were casual professional employees, and the underpayments related to the employees' entitlements to minimum engagement periods, overtime, allowances, public holiday penalty rates and contracted hours. The University also identified that it had failed to make and keep required employee records.
Following identification of these underpayments, the University commenced a broad review of the work allocation, supervision and payment practices for all casual academic employees (Casual Academic Review). The Casual Academic Review is ongoing but to date has revealed underpayments to casual academic employees in the School of Mathematics and Statistics and the School of Psychology in the Faculty of Science, a number of Schools in the Faculty of Engineering, and the Sydney School of Education and Social Work in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. These underpayments generally relate to failing to apply correct sessional and tutorial rates and failing to pay for all time spent marking.
As part of the review process, the University voluntarily disclosed the contraventions to the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO).
The University has personally notified its impacted current and former employees of the contraventions and the underpayments owed. The University apologises unreservedly for the contraventions, and we are taking all necessary steps to remedy the contraventions, including by continuing to undertake the Casual Academic Review in remaining priority Schools and Faculties.
The University has now entered into an Enforceable Undertaking with the FWO to ensure its ongoing compliance with Commonwealth workplace laws. The University will, as a result of the Enforceable Undertaking, commit to undertake a number of activities to ensure its ongoing compliance, including finalising the Casual Academic Review and commissioning an audit of employee entitlements.
If you have queries or questions relating to your employment, please contact the University’s Shared Services Centre (+61 2 9351 2000 or hr.servicecentre@sydney.edu.au).
Alternatively, anyone can contact the FWO via their website or phone on 13 13 94.