Australian Greens Deputy Leader and Education spokesperson Senator Mehreen Faruqi has responded to news that the University of Melbourne will pay back unpaid wages to current and former staff in the order of $22 million, with possibly more to come.
Senator Faruqi said:
"This will be a big relief to staff who were underpaid and poorly treated, but it should never have come to this.
"The casualisation business model of our universities is completely unsustainable and inhumane. It has to be eradicated across all our campuses.
"Staff and unions have been vindicated in their tenacity and pursuit of stolen wages.
"UniMelb has previously said the insecure employment and casualisation model is undesirable for its future. That's putting it lightly. It's time to make job insecurity a thing of the past.
"Multiple Senate inquiries I sat on during the last parliament heard damning evidence from university staff of wage theft, casualisation and job insecurity across Australia.
"I began referring universities to the Senate Economics committee's inquiry into underpayments more than two years ago. Since then, wage theft and casualisation at our universities has been proven to be systemic.
"Congratulations to the NTEU and casual staff who are fighting hard for fair pay and secure work."
