At the time the internal review was established, the University had not received any reports of underpayments or claims by staff.
The independent audit has now been completed and has identified some issues with the University’s current systems and processes which may have led to the underpayment of some casual staff.
The scale of any potential underpayment is not yet known. Our first step in responding to the audit will be to implement the recommended actions and to conduct a deep analysis of our payments to casual staff over the last six years to quantify, then rectify, any underpayments that may have occurred.
More information about the issues identified in the audit and the actions the University is taking to implement its recommendations are outlined here.
We are disappointed by these findings and apologise to any staff who may have been affected. While any errors were unintentional, we are taking urgent steps to improve our systems and processes and to remedy any underpayments that may have occurred. We will do this as quickly as possible.
The audit’s findings indicate that we need to simplify, automate and improve our systems and processes to make sure that our payments to casual staff are accurate. Making these improvements will necessarily take some time, however correcting any underpayments is our priority and will be completed as soon as possible.
Professor John Dewar AO, Vice-Chancellor, La Trobe University
