Cohort details

Current professional ongoing and fixed-term staff (HEW1 to HEW10), including educators in QUT College/International College, employed between 25 September 2019 and 24 November 2025.

Expected to commence

Quarter 3, 2026

Cohort details

Current casual professional staff who were employed between 25 September 2019 and 24 November 2025

Expected to commence

Quarter 3, 2026

Cohort details

Current and former professional staff (including educators in QUT College/International College) employed between 25 September 2019 and 24 November 2025 who had multiple casual, fixed-term or ongoing contracts

Expected to commence

Quarter 3, 2026

Cohort details

Former professional ongoing and fixed-term staff (HEW1 to HEW10), including educators in QUT College/International College, who were employed between 25 September 2019 and 24 November 2025

Expected to commence

Quarter 4, 2026

Cohort details

Former casual professional staff who were employed between 25 September 2019 and 24 November 2025

Expected to commence

Quarter 3, 2026

An Enforceable Undertaking is a formal, legally binding agreement between an organisation and the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) that sets out specific actions to identify and rectify any underpayments, strengthen systems, and ensure compliance with Commonwealth workplace laws.

The Enforceable Undertaking formalises a broad and comprehensive review of entitlements paid to current and former professional staff, sessional academic staff, and educators in QUT College/International College covered by the relevant Enterprise Agreements and ensures the rectification of any further underpayments identified by the review.

Finalising the Enforceable Undertaking has been a highly complex and comprehensive process. The release of the EU by FWO means we can now communicate directly with current and former staff about this undertaking and the review process.

Like many other universities, these underpayments have arisen partially due to the inability of the payroll system to ensure automatic payment of staff entitlements.

The attendance record for professional staff is not integrated with QUT’s payroll system meaning that a separate claim for overtime and any associated entitlements such as meal allowances is required.

Similarly, QUT systems do not ensure an automatic payment of minimum engagements for casual professional staff (minimum 3 hours) and sessional academic staff (minimum 2 hours).

Wage underpayment has been a sector-wide issue across Australian universities, reflecting the complexity of enterprise agreements and legacy payroll systems. The Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) has reported recovery of more than $218 million for over 110,000 university staff nationally. 

The FWO has reported that since late 2020 it has been in contact with 38 institutions in the university sector in relation to potential underpayments, with eight Enforceable Undertakings with universities published since 2019. 

As part of the Enforceable Undertaking, we will continue to progress a number of activities to ensure our ongoing compliance with workplace laws, including system improvements and training.

What we've done

Implemented improvements to strengthen payroll compliance and recently introduced an interim attendance record system to better capture overtime and penalty entitlements.

What we're doing

To address the main causes of the staff underpayments, the EU also requires QUT to develop and implement an Integrated Timesheet in which attendance records for professional, casual, sessional, and educators in the QUT College will be integrated into the payroll system to automatically calculate and pay staff entitlements. Progress on this is underway with piloting scheduled for the first quarter in 2026 and a rollout to relevant staff by the end of the year. 

The EU also has requirements to strengthen oversight of compliance with workplace laws and enterprise agreements by the University’s Council and Risk and Audit Committee

The Comprehensive External Review has commenced in February 2026 and will be undertaken in cohorts. The review is expected to take up to two years. 

This two-year review period reflects the scale and complexity of the work, which involves analysing six years of payroll and attendance data across multiple enterprise agreements. 

QUT will keep staff updated throughout the process and communicate any findings or payments as they are confirmed.

Current and former staff members employed under one or more of the following arrangements during the period specified will have their pay and relevant entitlements reviewed: 

• casual professional staff members employed at QUT at any time between 25 September 2019 and 24 November 2025
• sessional academic staff members (including educators in QUT College/International College) employed at QUT at any time between 13 August 2019 and 24 November 2025
• ongoing or fixed-term professional staff members (HEW1 to HEW10, including QUT College Educators) employed at QUT at any time between 25 September 2019 and 24 November 2025

If your entitlements were reviewed as part of internal audits since 2019, they won't be assessed again as part of the CER.

Once review of your cohort commences, we'll email you to explain the process and let you know if any underpayments are identified.

The Comprehensive External Review will examine a six-year period, consistent with the Fair Work Act's period for recovering underpayments. This timeframe, agreed by the Fair Work Ombudsman, ensures all potential entitlement errors within the statutory period are identified and rectified.

We have agreed with the FWO to review relevant employee entitlements specific to the two current Enterprise Agreements and the most recent previous agreements. The timeframe for review is aligned to the commencement of the previous Enterprise Agreements and signing of the Enforceable Undertaking.

The commencement of the previous Enterprise Agreements are:

• From 13 August 2019 - Queensland University of Technology Enterprise Agreement (Academic Staff) 2018-2021
• From 25 September 2019 - Queensland University of Technology Enterprise Agreement (Professional Staff) 2018-2021

The Fair Work Ombudsman has provided guidance on the sequencing of staff cohorts for the CER.

In October 2021, following an external payroll and superannuation compliance assessment audit, as well as internal audits of staff attendance records, QUT voluntarily disclosed contraventions of the Queensland University of Technology Enterprise Agreement (Professional Staff) 2014-2017 and the Queensland University of Technology Enterprise Agreement (Professional Staff) 2018-2021 to the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO).

Since then, we undertook internal audits in organisational areas and faculties where staff were most likely to work overtime, together with staff who accepted the invitation to have their attendance records reviewed if they had concerns.

Records for 529 current and former professional employees were audited resulting in $1,916,271.58 in payments.

All underpayments identified as part of this initial review have been rectified with interest (and superannuation, where applicable), and staff impacted received email notification at the time of back payment.

This groundwork supported the development of the Enforceable Undertaking and a robust methodology for how QUT and KPMG will review and remediate appropriate entitlements from the Enterprise Agreements. This methodology has been approved by the Fair Work Ombudsman.

When review of your records begins, you'll receive an email to explain the process.

If the review identifies that you’ve been underpaid, you'll receive an email with details of the underpayment, how it was calculated, and how the payment will be made. 

Staff who have already had their entitlements reviewed as part of the internal audit will not be assessed again as part of the Comprehensive External Review.

You don't need to take any action at this stage. You'll receive an email when the review of your records is commencing with information to explain the process.

The CER commenced in early 2026 and will be undertaken in cohorts. The review is expected to take up to two years.

We will write to all current and former staff in early 2026 who are in scope for this review to provide more information.

Due to the complex and thorough nature of the review, the audit is expected to take up to two years to fully complete. The review process will be undertaken in cohorts.

If you're in scope, you'll receive an email when the review for your cohort commences. This email will explain the process, identify the records we've already collected from our systems and request any other relevant documents you may have that can support the review.

We are working through individual reviews as quickly as possible. Due to the complex and thorough nature of this process, it is expected to take up to two years for this review to be fully complete.

All staff will receive an email on commencement of the review of their records to explain the process and request any relevant documents a staff member may have to support the review. The University will also undertake its own searches for relevant records.

If the review identifies a staff member has been underpaid, QUT will contact them again directly via email with details of the underpayment, including how it was calculated and how the payment will be made.

Staff in scope for the CER will receive an email on commencement of the review for their cohort. This email will explain the process, identify the records QUT has already collected from QUT systems and request any other relevant documents a staff member may have to support the review.

Staff are encouraged to wait for this email to understand the attendance records which QUT has located and if additional information is required.

To support the audit, QUT is currently collecting relevant data and attendance records saved on all QUT digital systems. QUT will also contact supervisors of professional staff to collect attendance record data stored locally.

In the absence of any written attendance records being located on QUT systems or stored locally by supervisors, QUT will consider any reasonable evidence a staff member may provide including but not limited to emails, notifications, submissions.

You don't need to take any action at this stage.

To support the audit, QUT is currently collecting relevant data and attendance records saved on all QUT digital systems. QUT will also contact supervisors of professional staff to collect attendance record data stored locally.

Supervisors are encouraged to wait for an email to understand which attendance records and additional information are required. 

We'll notify any staff identified as having an underpayment in writing, explaining the reason for any underpayment (including the relevant provisions within the applicable Enterprise Agreement/s that were contravened), the methodology applicable to the review and the source(s) relied upon to identify the underpayment.