His statement of claim says that he started working in the position of a change analyst for NAB in January, 2015. His duties included regularly updating the NAB corporate intranet site, rewriting user guides for technology equipment, designing internal reports, taking part in staff training, providing technology support for staff and change management activities. The claim says NAB provided him with a laptop, access to online systems, a corporate email address, building access, an identification card and authority to purchase equipment at NAB's expense. He also appeared in the NAB corporate directory as a level 2 employee. Mr Stuart, now aged 25, said NAB did not pay him a salary or any superannuation during the 12 months he worked for the bank. Daniel Stuart has lodged a claim for $80,000 for lost wages and superannuation from NAB. Credit:Patrick Scala He is alleging NAB breached its own enterprise agreement which was a contravention of the Fair Work Act under section 50.

He also alleges that NAB failed to give him a Fair Work Information Statement as required under section 125 of the Act. The statement of claim says Mr Stuart was entitled to be paid $70,290.29 in wages for the year he worked at the bank, $7,029.03 in superannuation and $3,514.51 for 13 rostered days off. In its defence document lodged with the Federal Circuit Court, NAB said it was not required to pay any student any award, salary, fee or other payment for taking part in the IBL program. Students are and will remain at all times students of the University and will not be deemed to be employees...of NAB NAB court document It says "students are and will remain at all times students of the University and will not be deemed to be employees, apprentices, servants or contractors of NAB by reason of their participation in the IBL program".

A spokeswoman for NAB said it could not comment on legal proceedings. She said the bank has a process for managing university student placements, "aimed at ensuring the placements benefit the students and provide industry-based learning appropriate for their courses". Mr Stuart said he was paid an allowance of about $16 per hour or $31,000 for the year he worked at NAB from Swinburne University which NAB said it had "gifted" to the university. Loading In its defence statement, NAB said the gift to the University "does not constitute a payment to the University for any student placement". It said the University is solely responsible for determining how the gift amount is used. "It was my first job, so I didn't really know much about it and I wasn't given a Fair Work Statement," he said.

"Around mid year I started putting out questions like where is my superannuation. By the time I worked it all out it was December." Mr Stuart complained to the university which told him the IBL program had not earned him any credit points to count towards his course. Mr Stuart said he was working as an employee as opposed to undertaking a vocational placement which can be lawfully unpaid under the Fair Work Act. "At the end of the day I worked for a year and didn't get anything out of it," Mr Stuart said. "I chose to work because I wanted to get paid. Given that their last profits were $5.5 billion you would assume they could afford to pay people properly. It was hard to survive on around $30,000 a year. I had to pay for my commute to work each day, purchase business attire and more. It was a struggle financially. It wasn't a good feeling finding out that everyone else was getting paid properly." Andrew Stewart a professor of employment law from the University of Adelaide said if the case goes to court, "it will be a fascinating test of the scope of the Fair Work Act’s “vocational placement” exception".

"It raises issues that haven’t been considered before, including whether an elective program can be considered a “requirement”, and whether work experience is truly unpaid if it attracts a payment funded by a “gift” from the host organisation," Professor Stewart said.