Sri Lanka’s former Deputy High Commissioner to Australia, Himalee Arunatilaka, has been ordered to pay an additional $117,000 to Priyanka Danaratna, a domestic worker whom she paid less than 90 cents a day over three years in Canberra.
Ms. Danaratna, who arrived in Australia in 2015 to work for the Deputy High Commissioner, endured grueling conditions from 6:00 am to 10:00 pm daily, with only two days off during her employment. Unable to speak or read English and having her passport confiscated upon arrival, she performed all domestic duties, including cooking, cleaning, and laundry, sometimes working until 1:00 am during official events.
The Federal Court previously ordered Ms. Arunatilaka in August to pay $374,000 in unpaid wages and $169,000 in interest, citing the exploitative arrangement as a breach of Australian employment laws. Justice Elizabeth Raper described the $11,212.70 Ms. Danaratna received over three years as a “paltry sum” under an unlawful contract.
In its latest judgment, the court imposed an additional penalty of $117,000 on Ms. Arunatilaka to deter similar practices and criticized her lack of engagement with the legal proceedings. The former diplomat, now Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Office at Geneva, has yet to pay any of the court-ordered amounts.
Ms. Danaratna managed to escape the abusive arrangement in 2018 with assistance from the Salvation Army, which took her to a safe house in Sydney. The Sri Lankan High Commission has not responded to requests for comment on the case.
