The Sri Lankan government has defended a former Canberra-based senior diplomat found by a court to have paid a worker 65 cents an hour for years of labour.
In a Federal Court judgment published last week, Justice Elizabeth Raper ordered Himalee Subhashini de Silya Arunatilaka to fork out over $540,000 in unpaid wages and interest.
The recent decision revealed the former Sri Lankan Deputy High Commissioner in Australia, who did not take part in civil proceedings, paid Priyanka Danaratna a total of $11,212 for about three years of work.
"The allowance approved by the ministry as the salary of the employee has been paid to her," Sri Lanka's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement over the weekend.
"The ministry is satisfied that the said salary was paid to the domestic assistant by the employer as mutually agreed."
The government response described taking domestic assistants overseas to help with official representation duties as "standard practice".
"The domestic assistant in question served a full three-year term and, on the eve of the employer's originally intended departure from Australia, absconded from the residence of the employer," the statement said.
'Tip of the iceberg'
"This is the tip of the iceberg," Canberra-based human rights lawyer and modern slavery specialist advisor Fiona David said.
"The tragedy of this case is that the worker involved has been seeking repayment, not even justice, just repayment of their basic entitlements, since 2018.
"They now have a court order but they're no closer to being paid."
In evidence, the court heard Ms Danaratna had her passport taken away when she arrived in Australia in 2015, did not speak English, worked 14 hours a day, seven days a week, and could not leave the house without permission.
She took just two days off from working at the Canberra home after badly burning herself and going to hospital.
Ms David, who led the creation of the Global Slavery Index, said workers like Ms Danaratna were especially vulnerable to exploitation, especially without community connections.
"If you don't have that, and if you're in this incredible power imbalance where the person you work for, in your eyes, is very powerful and, potentially has diplomatic immunity, it's very hard to come forward," she said.
"The number of cases that come forward to seek help is certainly more than we see reported in the papers, certainly more than we see reported in Federal Court proceedings."
Last year, Justice Raper also ordered former Indian High Commissioner Navdeep Suri Singh to pay his then-Canberra-based employee $189,000 in a similar case.
Mr Singh was fined another $97,000 in March for breaches of Australian employment law. Ms Arunatilaka is likely to face similar further penalties.
Ms David said workers like Ms Danaratna are entitled to protections under Australian law, with diplomats undertaking to follow domestic workplace requirements.
'Disappointing but not surprising'
The lawyer described the Sri Lankan government's response to the case as "disappointing but not surprising".
"Disappointing that a foreign government would show such little respect for the Australian legal system," Ms David said.
"And not surprising because this type of exploitation of domestic workers in diplomatic households happens in national capitals around the world, from Geneva to Washington to Canberra."
Clayton Utz pro bono partner David Hillard, who led the team representing Ms Danaratna, previously described the arrangements as "slave-like".
The lawyer said he had no idea how the Sri Lankan ministry was satisfied Ms Arunatilaka had paid out a mutually agreed salary.
That salary, which the worker did not receive in full, the Federal Court revealed, was meant to be $620 a month plus an allowance.
"Leaving that aside, the ministry doesn't in any way grapple with the fact that what was promised was well short of what's required in Australia," Mr Hillard said.
"Or the fact that Ms Arunatilaka had taken our client's passport upon her arrival."
While Mr Hillard described the recent decision as "fairly groundbreaking", especially in establishing diplomatic immunity doesn't always apply, he said enforcing the order was outside the court's remit.
"It's a matter for us to try and enforce. It's going to be challenging," he said.
Monitoring needed
Over the decade she ran the Salvation Army's trafficking and slavery safe house, Jenny Stanger said she helped at least 20 people get out of, or after they'd escaped, diplomatic households.
But, now the program manager for Australian Catholic Anti-Slavery Network, Ms Stanger had hoped Australia was beyond allowing cases like Ms Danaratna's.
The key issue raised by her and others is private domestic workers not being properly monitored and looked after once they arrive in Australia.
"Anyone can sign a paper and say, 'Yes, I'll pay this money to this person'," Ms Stanger said.
"But if you're not going to go and verify and if you're not even going to give that person a safe, independent mechanism to tell anyone when things are bad or be guaranteed some sort of protection for speaking up.
"Most workers are just going to suffer until they move on to the next household or leave the country or, in some cases, are literally enslaved by that person and follow them from country to country."
But Ms Stanger, who also suggested agencies like the Fair Work Commission should be involved in overseeing worker contracts, said the full picture was still unclear.
"What we know is from those who have gotten away, and it's pretty bad," she said.
"It's really sad. We can do better."
The Canberra Times asked the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade about the case, similar exploitation cases, and the Sri Lankan government's response.
"The Australian government applies a rigorous policy to seek compliance with Australian pay and employment conditions and to meet community expectations," a departmental spokesperson responded.
"It would not be appropriate to comment on matters before the courts."
Ms Arunatilaka is now living in Switzerland as the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations in Geneva.
