O-289 How Salary Injustice at the Top Links to an Organisation’s PSC and Worker Psychological Health

Abstract Background On top of decades of restructuring, the Australian university sector faced unprecedented turmoil during the COVID crisis. Through cost-cutting, around 20% of staff in the sector lost employment and those who remained faced significant demands. Yet university finances rebounded and Vice Chancellor (VC) salaries greater than AUD1m (10x average lecturer salaries) prevailed. Alongside evidence university employees are at high risk for psychological distress given low psychosocial safety climate (PSC) compared to other industries, we sought to investigate how resource distribution injustice (e. g. , top-level salary overpayment) relates to PSC and negative psychological outcomes for university staff, using a human-centred and distributive-justice framework. Method Data were collected in a longitudinal, four-wave survey of Australian university staff, taken annually from 2020–2023. Individual- and university-level relationships across time were analysed, using PSC, emotional exhaustion, psychological distress and items asking participants their own, head of school, and vice chancellor salary rating. Results Almost 80% of the sample believed their VC was overpaid. VC salary overpayment was found to correlate negatively with PSC and positively with emotional exhaustion and psychological distress, at an individual level, university level and across time. Effects were stronger when the discrepancy between VC and own salary rating was assessed. Discussion- Conclusions This study suggests distributive injustice through salary excesses prevails in the context of low PSC, higher emotional exhaustion and distress. Salary injustice particularly influences the organisational climate for worker psychological health (PSC) and in turn their psychological health, possibly through the violation of human-centred value system (low PSC).