Second diplomat caught trapping staff in Canberra

A Federal Court judge has slammed the Home Affairs Department for failing to properly scrutinise a former diplomat who confiscated a staffer’s passport and gave her just two days leave in three years.

The case is one of several recent examples where diplomats from countries with poor employment practices have been caught failing to comply with employment laws and have been hit with big penalties.

Sri Lanka’s former deputy high commissioner to Australia has been ordered to pay $543,000 in unpaid wages and interest to a domestic worker and now faces a large fine for breaches of employment laws

Himalee Arunatilaka, who served in Canberra from 2015 to 2018, denied her employee, Priyanka Danaratna, minimum pay and conditions during time in Australia, the court found.

Justice Elizabeth Raper found Ms Danaratna worked from 6am to 10pm, seven days a week and was only allowed two days off in that time after she burnt her hand with cooking oil.

Over the period, she was paid just $11,200 – around 75¢ an hour – which was sent to Sri Lanka. Ms Danaratna also was denied permission to leave the Canberra residence alone, and had her passport confiscated.

In addition to handing down a damning judgment for Ms Arunatilaka, Justice Raper suggested that if the Home Affairs Department had taken a closer look, “Ms Danaratna’s employment may have been very different”.

“It is not without concern that it would have been clear to [Home Affairs], by reason of the materials provided ... that Ms Danaratna was not going to [be] paid nor enjoy the protections under the Award or the FW Act,” she wrote.

“There was no apparent attempt to conceal the arrangement by Ms Arunatilaka. It is perplexing that the department, in the circumstances, did nothing and granted the visa in the circumstances.”

The case is one of several recent examples where diplomats from countries with poor employment practices have been caught failing to comply with employment laws and have been hit with big penalties.

The Federal Court last year ordered India’s high commissioner between 2015 and 2016 Navdeep Suri Singh to pay $189,000 in unpaid wages and interest to Seema Shergill, who was found to be working in “slave-like” conditions in the chief diplomat’s residence.

Justice Raper also ordered Mr Suri to pay a $97,200 fine for wage theft, the maximum amount allowed.

Mr Suri brought Seema Shergill to Australia when he started in 2015. When they arrived in Australia, he confiscated Ms Shergill’s passport and confined her to the family’s Canberra residence.

Neither Ms Arunatilaka nor Mr Suri defended the legal actions against them, and it is not clear whether the claimants in either case will ever see a cent of the amounts awarded.

The cases were only possible because the Federal Court recognised that the residual immunity granted former diplomats does not extend to employees in their direct employment, who are covered by Australian fair work laws.