Ex-SL diplomat ordered to pay $500,000 to domestic worker

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

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.”  

Himalee Arunatilaka currently serves as Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UN) in Geneva. 
(Australian Financial Review)