A former deputy high commissioner of Sri Lanka in Canberra has been ordered to pay a domestic worker $543,000 after paying her about 65 cents an hour over a three year period where she had only two days off.
Himalee Subhashini de Silya Arunatilaka, who is now Permanent Representative for Sri Lanka to the United Nations Office in Geneva, Switzerland, was on Thursday found in breach of Australia’s Fair Work Act.
Federal Court Judge Elizabeth Raper’s judgement also criticised the Home Affairs Department for failing to prevent the exploitation, and came after she ordered top Indian diplomat to compensate a worker he kept in similar “slave-like” conditions.
Judge Raper found that Arunatilaka forced her employee, Priyanka Danaratna, then in her mid-30s, to work in her home seven days a week from 6am to 10pm between 2015 and 2018, confiscated her passport and would not allow her to go out alone.
Ms Danaratna was paid just $11,212 over the entire period, during which she was only given two days off, and only because she burned her hand with cooking oil.
Arunatilaka was ordered to $374,000 in unpaid wages, and $169,000 in interest.
Clayton Utz Pro Bono Partner David Hillard, who represented Ms Danaratna, said: “We know that this is not an isolated case – it is the second Federal Court judgment in less than a year involving domestic workers at diplomatic residences in Canberra.
“Domestic workers in foreign diplomatic residences are among the most vulnerable and isolated workers in Australia. It is hard to conceive of someone in 21st century Australia literally being trapped in a job for three years and earning 65 cents an hour.
“This decision by Justice Raper, along with the upcoming penalties hearing against Ms Himalee Arunatilaka, spells out clearly that these workers have rights in Australia, and that senior diplomats cannot hide behind diplomatic immunity when it comes to keeping their servants under slave-like arrangements.”
