The Fair Work Ombudsman has ordered the University of NSW to pay $33 million to staff for almost a decade of underpayments to casual academics.UNSW has been ordered to pay back underpaid staff.Edwina PicklesThe university paid casual academics and others, including professional staff, the wrong rates between 2014 and 2023, and also breached record-keeping and payslip requirements.“UNSW self-reported the underpayments to FWO in 2020, which prompted the FWO to begin its investigation. FWO found that UNSW’s record-keeping failures were so extensive that they hindered the investigation into the underpayments,” it said in a statement.UNSW must now make a contrition payment of $500,000 to Commonwealth Consolidated Revenue.It comes weeks after UNSW was named Australia’s highest-ranking university in the prestigious QS worldwide rankings.