The recent media reports about an Australian Federal Court ruling in a case against the former Deputy High Commissioner of Sri Lanka in Canberra have caught the attention of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The Foreign Affairs Ministry stated that it is customary for diplomats to have domestic assistants to help with their official representational duties. The domestic assistant in question completed a three-year term, and on the eve of the employer’s originally planned departure from Australia, the employer took off with their residence.The statement stated that the Ministry is satisfied that the said salary was paid to the domestic assistant by the employer as mutually agreed, and that the allowance approved by the Ministry as the employee’s salary has been paid to her.
“Sri Lanka reacts to a court order against a diplomat in Australia”
Australian media said on Thursday, 15th, that a Federal Court judge had censured the Home Affairs Department of Australia for their inadequate investigation into the actions of a Sri Lankan diplomat who had seized a staff member’s passport and granted her only two days of leave in three years.Thus, in addition to facing a hefty fine for breaking employment laws, Sri Lanka’s former deputy high commissioner to Australia was mandated to reimburse $543,000 in unpaid wages and interest to a domestic worker.The court determined that Himalee Arunatilaka, who held office in Canberra from 2015 to 2018, refused to provide her worker, Priyanka Danaratna, with minimum pay and working conditions while she was in Australia.
Ms. Danaratna was only permitted to take two days off during her seven-day workweek, according to Judge Elizabeth Raper, after she burned her hand on cooking oil.
She received just $11,200 during that time, or about 75¢ per hour, which was sent to Sri Lanka. In addition, Ms. Danaratna’s passport was seized and she was not allowed to leave the Canberra home by herself.
Judge Raper not only delivered a harsh verdict for Ms. Arunatilaka, but also hinted that “Ms. Danaratna’s employment may have been very different” had the Home Affairs Department looked into the matter more thoroughly.The Indian high commissioner, Navdeep Suri Singh, was ordered by the Australian Federal Court last year to give $189,000 in unpaid wages and interest to Seema Shergill. Seema was discovered to be working under “slave-like” conditions in the chief diplomat’s residence between 2015 and 2016.
Along with that, Judge Raper fined Mr. Suri the maximum amount permitted for wage theft, which came to $97,200.Sri Lanka’s ambassador and permanent representative to the UN in Geneva was appointed to Ms. Arunatilaka in 2023.
