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Following a Fair Work Ombudsman inquiry in relation to one casual staff member, the University conducted investigations which led to the discovery of two separate issues affecting staff payments.

This review identified two issues that resulted in some staff not being paid their full entitlements, including unprocessed casual timesheets and on-call allowances.

The University has voluntarily self-reported these findings to the Fair Work Ombudsman, and will maintain contact with the Ombudsman as we remedy these issues.

Unprocessed casual timesheets

The University’s system requires casual professional and casual sessional academic staff to manually enter timesheets in the online staff portal to claim hours/units worked. After submission of a timesheet by a staff member, it is routed to their supervisor for review and action.

If hours/units are submitted but not actioned and approved, the hours/units are not automatically included in payroll for processing. The error occurred because the timesheets were only visible to supervisors for a period of two weeks. After this time, timesheets were no longer visible and consequently could not be actioned by supervisors.

The University has taken immediate steps to rectify this system error.

Emergency and on-call availability allowances

The University’s investigation also identified a secondary issue regarding on-call availability allowances, affecting a smaller number of staff. Staff who were required to be available to respond to emergency requests may not have received the correct allowance. Additionally, we are investigating inconsistencies in the payment of on-call allowances, particularly regarding overtime eligibility for staff required to work outside regular hours.

We have identified up to 120 staff who may be affected by this secondary issue regarding allowances.

The University is taking this matter seriously and thoroughly investigating to ensure all remediation payments are made as soon as possible.

The University has taken immediate and comprehensive steps to remediate missed payments to affected staff.

Unprocessed casual timesheets

Affected staff identified from the 2023/2024 financial year have already received remuneration. On 4 July 2024, 226 staff with timesheets totaling $261,000 were reimbursed.

The University is working to pay all other impacted staff their outstanding payments as soon as possible. We anticipate this process will take 10-12 weeks to ensure a thorough review, calculation and processing of the appropriate remediation payments.

Both current and former staff identified will be contacted directly by ANU.

The University has also taken proactive steps to review and enhance our timesheet processes to prevent any unactioned timesheets from being accidently overlooked.

Availability Allowance

The University is taking this matter seriously and is committed to thoroughly investigating it to ensure all remediation payments are made if owed. Identified staff affected by this error will be contacted.

Additional measures

In addition, we have engaged KPMG to undertake a robust review and to assist in calculating appropriate remediation payments for remaining impacted staff members (including superannuation entitlements and interest payments).

This will take time, but we want to assure you that we are committed to resolving this as quickly as possible. If there are any other affected staff, they will be identified during this review and appropriately remunerated.  

Yes. Immediate remediation has begun. All staff identified will be paid in line with the employment arrangements applicable at the time, including superannuation, and with interest.

Yes. Tax will be applicable to payments made to staff as per Â鶹´«Ã½AV Taxation Office (ATO) requirements. Superannuation will be paid on amounts owed in line with the employment arrangements applicable at the time.

The University has taken proactive steps to review and enhance our timesheet processes to prevent any unactioned timesheets from being accidently overlooked.

The University is also exploring longer term system solutions to assist with timesheet submission and approval workflows.

A review of the application of the Availability Allowances across the University is being undertaken. Guidelines will be developed and distributed to support the consistent application of this provision throughout the University.

The University implemented an online timesheet system in 2013. Prior to this, timesheets were submitted via hard copy forms. Our investigation covers the 11 years that online timesheets have been used at ANU.

At this point, there is no indication of an impact to staff prior to 2013.
 

Once the reconciliation is completed, you will receive a personalised statement outlining the calculations that have been completed. This will outline the payment of amounts owed, superannuation and interest on both wages and superannuation, and the amount of tax that is being withheld from your payment. 

The review period is from 1 Feb 2016 to 31 July 2024.  This review period is aligned to the review period for employees covered by the ANU EA.  
 

ANU has calculated interest on back payments to compensate you for the time value of money. Interest has been calculated at a nominal rate of 8.35% per annum from the time the payment should have been made to you up until 30 June 2025.

Further, interest on superannuation has been assessed at a nominal rate of 10% per annum.  
 

In your email advising you will be receiving your statement shortly, there is a link to a form to provide your updated details directly to the ANU payroll team.  The information required includes your home address, banking details and updated TFN declaration and Superannuation declaration.

• Information on how to complete a TFN declaration through MyGov can be found

• Information on how to complete a superannuation form through MyGov can be found
   

For existing staff, these payments will be made as soon as practicable. For former staff we require updated details to make these payments. The link to complete the details will be provided to former staff as part of our communications. Payment would then be made as soon as practicable.
 

The ATO only reviews monies that you have received in your bank account in the financial year in which it was paid. Due to this, all previous tax returns remain unchanged. Where any back payments are paid to you, they will be included as part of that financial year's earnings, taxed as per ATO legislation at the appropriate marginal rate(s).

For your FY25-26 tax return, please note, any interest payments that have been made to you do not constitute employment income. Consequently, ANU has not withheld tax on these amounts, nor will they be reported on your year-end income statement. Interest payments are, however, taxable as a part of your personal income and you must consider these payments when preparing your personal income tax return.

If additional superannuation contributions are made to you which result in your total income and concessional superannuation exceeding $250,000 in the personal income tax year, you may be subject to an additional 15% Division 293 tax.  

ANU recommends that employees seek qualified, independent financial and taxation advice to help make informed decisions about your personal affairs. 
 

ANU has engaged independent advisors, including KPMG to perform recalculations and ensure that we get this right. We have worked with employment, tax, superannuation, and payroll calculation specialists who all have extensive experience in payroll remediation programs.  
 

The University is proactively contacting staff who have been identified as affected by these issues.

If you think you may have been affected by these issues and have not yet been contacted by ANU, please complete our and the University will look into the matter as a priority. Please allow up to 24 hours to be contacted by ANU before using this form.

The form is available to current and former ANU employees.

The personal information gathered in this form will be used for the purpose of identifying you and reviewing your claim. Once the information is collected and verified, outstanding payments will be made.