Alan Boulton, 76, faced Melbourne Magistrates Court in person on Friday.
Prosecutors withdrew a charge of engaging in sexual activity, other than sexual intercourse, with a child under 16 outside of Australia.
He then entered a plea to two counts of possessing child abuse material.
"Guilty," Boulton told the court.
The 76-year-old "inadvertently displayed" inappropriate images during a Monash University lecture in February 2025.
The incident was reported to police, who commenced an investigation and interviewed him at his Middle Park home in inner Melbourne, where electronic devices were seized.
Police also travelled to NSW where they searched a second property in Sydney and took more devices.
According to charge sheets, the abuse material was held in a computer or data storage device.
The offending occurred between February 3 and 12 in 2025.
Boulton's bail was extended, with his primary address changed from Middle Park to the beachside suburb of Bronte in Sydney.
His conditions include residing at either of his two addresses, not contacting prosecution witnesses and notifying police within 24 hours of a change of address.
Boulton will appear before the Victorian County Court on March 5 for a pre-sentence hearing.
The 76-year-old ex-academic is a former Australian Council of Trade Unions lawyer and was appointed deputy president of the Fair Work Commission in 1989.
He became the commission's senior deputy president in 1993, serving until 2015.
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