India’s former high commissioner to Australia has been ordered to pay a civil penalty to a former staffer for making her work in “slave-like” conditions in his Canberra home.
Federal Court Justice Elizabeth Raper said in a written judgement Wednesday that Navdeep Suri Singh must pay $97,200 to domestic worker Seema Shergill, after previously ordering him to pay her $189,000 in unpaid wages and interest.
Singh, who retired in 2019 after serving as India’s ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, paid Ms Shergill about $3,400 into an Indian bank account that she could not access while in Australia, for working 17.5 hours a day for 13 months.
She had originally worked for him when he was India’s ambassador to Egypt, and he brought her into Australia when he started as high commissioner in Canberra in 2015, but confiscated her passport and made her live inside his family home.
Justice Raper said in her judgement: “Ms Shergill’s working conditions bore no semblance with what might be expected by Australian society.
“Ms Shergill was a domestic worker in the house of Mr Suri, who was then the Indian High Commissioner to Australia. Her employment conditions, which included her passport being taken from her, working seven days a week, never being permitted to take leave and only being allowed outside the house for brief periods in the day when looking after Mr Suri’s dog, involved significant breaches of Australian law.”
She found that the circumstances of Ms Shergill’s case fell within the definition of “slave-like conditions”, and noted that at one stage Ms Shergill fled Singh’s home and slept on the streets in fear of repercussions after refusing to sign documents saying she was being paid a salary.
“Ms Shergill refused to sign the documents because they did not record what she had actually been paid. Ms Shergill was pressured not only by staff of the Indian High Commission but also Mr Suri’s wife. Mr Suri’s wife told her that if she refused to sign it, she would be sent back to India,” Justice Raper wrote in her judgement.
As in the previous judgement in November, the Federal Court rejected Singh’s claims of diplomatic immunity.
“It is without question that Ms Shergill was employed by him personally and not the Indian High Commission. It is without question that Mr Suri was, as was Ms Shergill, subject to the rights, obligations and protections under Australian law,” Justice Raper ruled.
The fine of $97,200 was the court was able to order, and must be paid within 60 days.
