An update on employee entitlements

Cheif People Officer Beth Bundy has today written to all employees providing a comprehensive update on four matters relating to employee entitlements.

A copy of her letter is below. Swinburne staff should visit the Pay Remediation page for the most up-to-date information.

An update on employee entitlements

Dear colleagues,

Earlier this year, I committed to keeping you updated as the University remediates identified salary underpayments and embarks on a wider program of work to ensure compliance with our obligations under the Fair Work Act, relevant enterprise agreements and applicable legislation. This email provides a comprehensive update on four matters which, due to their complexity, means this is a longer communication than normal.

As part of our response, we have worked with external experts to comprehensively look at 10 known industry issues identified at universities around Australia to determine any applicability to Swinburne. This review has identified two issues at Swinburne, with the remaining confirmed as compliant.

PhD rate of pay

The review discovered that some sessional academics with a PhD were not receiving the higher rate of pay they deserved. Over the past six years, we identified 296 affected employees who are collectively owed around $279,504.

There were several contributing factors, including a delay in the university receiving employee PhD information. 

To prevent this from happening again, and to ensure our system is updated as staff become qualified with a PhD, we have made several improvements:

• Adding mandatory fields in Workday to capture employees' PhD status and award date.
• Providing training and education to relevant teams and staff studying a PhD.
• Updated guidance materials for employees and supervisors.
• Amended casual contracts to require staff to notify Swinburne in writing if they hold or obtain a PhD.

These employees will receive full back-pay, along with interest and any applicable superannuation.

Meal allowance

Swinburne professional and Student Life employees are entitled to an overtime meal allowance for working certain overtime hours. The review found that 289 employees did not claim and were not paid this allowance over the last six years, totalling around $59,000. Many employees were unaware of this entitlement and the need to proactively claim it.

To address this, a mandatory field has been added in Workday. Now, when an employee applies for overtime, there is a prompt to confirm their entitlement to the meal allowance and ensuring it is claimed and paid.

Those employees impacted will receive full back-pay of their entitlements, along with interest.

Leave review

Separately to the known industry issues, following an increase in ad hoc leave balance enquiries, Swinburne engaged an independent third-party specialist to conduct an in-depth review of leave balances for all current employees, which involved reviewing 1.5 million records.

The review identified 2,587 employees with incorrect annual or personal leave balances, and some with both. For annual leave, more than two thirds of employees are impacted by less than one hour, and close to 90% will see a change of 10 hours or less. There are six employees who will fall into a negative annual leave balance after the adjustment.

I am acutely aware of the anxiety this may cause leading into the holidays, but I want to be clear, there will be no impact on any leave booked. All employees, regardless of their balance after the adjustment, will be able to take their leave, as planned.

For those with a reduction greater than 10 hours, we will work proactively with them on a case-by-case basis, ensuring we find a solution that meets their personal circumstances.

The cause varies depending on the cohort but relates to leave balances in our legacy pay system being incorrect, and not accounting for all previous agreement provisions, as well as our current payroll system being configured incorrectly to accrue accurately.  

We have worked with an external forensic services provider to ensure future leave accruals align with the Swinburne’s policies, EBA, and legislation. All leave balances will be corrected on 28 November 2024.

Academic and Professional Employee Enterprise Agreement update to leave system

A key aim of the Academic and Professional Employee Enterprise Agreement 2024 was to create a simple, fit for purpose agreement, which reflects our commitment to ensuring needs are met with clarity and fairness. One key change is the shift to a simpler method for calculating leave accruals.

From 28 November 2024, personal leave will accrue progressively based on employees’ ordinary hours of work, with unused leave carrying over year to year. This replaces the previous system, where 30 days of personal leave were credited upfront (pro-rata for contracts under two years) with no further accrual until two years of service.

This change means that moving forward annual leave and personal leave will be calculated in the same way. It does not affect the amount of personal leave employees are entitled to.

This update will take effect on 28 November 2024, ensuring the new accrual system is in place for the start of 2025. Academic and professional employees may notice a small change to their balance following the adjustment, separate to the issue outlined above.

This change will not affect vocational employees who will continue to receive personal leave as stipulated in the Vocational Education and Training Enterprise Agreement 2022.

Ensuring further compliance

As with the underpayments earlier this year, we are committed to ensuring remediation is proactive, fair, and done as a priority.

We have been working constructively with the Fair Work Ombudsman since voluntarily self-reporting these underpayments and continue to update them on our progress.

To ensure further compliance, external experts are independently validating the legal interpretation and implementation of our Academic and Professional Employee Enterprise Agreement 2024.

Next steps

Employees with leave balance changes will receive an email with more information from People and Culture in the coming days. All leave balances, including those changing following the introduction of the Academic and Professional Employee Enterprise Agreement 2024 will be corrected on 28 November.

Employees affected by the PhD rates of pay or meal allowance adjustments will be contacted with further details. Current staff will receive their entitlements in a separate pay run on 10 December 2024.

We understand you may have questions or require clarification. The answers to the majority of your questions will be found on the dedicated pay remediation page which also includes details on the leave review. You can also reach out to P&C Assist by calling 03 9214 8600 or via email peopleassist@swin.edu.au.

We are here to support you and ensure you receive the assistance you need as we move towards the holiday period.

Kind regards,
Beth