A former ambassador has been ordered to pay a penalty of almost $100,000 after he employed a woman in "slave-like working conditions".
On Wednesday, a court stated Navdeep Suri Singh, who was the Indian High Commissioner to Australia at the time, hired a woman who undertook 17.5-hour days, seven days a week, with no leave.
Mr Suri did not pay the woman in Australia, rather, depositing a "paltry sum" equating to $9 per day to an account overseas.
In the Federal Court, Justice Elizabeth Raper ordered Mr Suri pay more than $97,200 to his former employee, Seema Shergill.
Mr Suri, who left Australia in 2016, did not engage in legal proceedings and did not file a defence.
Last year, Justice Raper ordered Mr Suri pay $136,000 to Ms Shergill and has since imposed the penalty after the ambassador failed to do so.
In a decision published on Wednesday, the judge said: "Ms Shergill was a member of a proportion of Australian workers who are invisible from Australian society: Their work and entire existence is entrapped within domestic servitude."
"These workers, by fear, the precarious nature of their employment arising from their visa status, their lack of language skills, complete isolation and their slave-like working conditions, are precluded from participating in our society and huddling under the cloak of our societal protections.
"Their invisibility breeds exploitation and unlawful practices."
Ms Shergill, who was an Indian national at the time, arrived in Canberra in April 2015 and worked and lived at Mr Suri's home until May 2016, when she fled.
She was paid less than $2500 for a year's work, performing domestic duties such as cooking, cleaning, gardening and laundry.
"Ms Shergill's working conditions bore no semblance with what might be expected by Australian society," Justice Raper said on Wednesday.
"They were in every sense egregious and exploitative in their effect of depriving Ms Shergill of any semblance of a work and life divide.
"The situation was exacerbated by the fact that Mr Suri never permitted Ms Shergill to take a day's leave, never allowed her to leave his diplomatic residence except for brief periods when looking after the dog and deprived her of her passport at all times."
In May 2016, she ran away after her employers tried to get her to sign a document which did not record her actual salary.
"I did not take any belongings with me, and I left behind all of my clothes," Ms Shergill told the court in September 2023.
"I slept on the streets. I was too scared to go back to the residence. I was sure that Mr Suri would punish me for leaving."
