'Slave-like conditions': Ex-High Commissioner who paid worker $9 a day faces further penalties

Navdeep Suri Singh took his domestic servant's passport and made her work seven days a week at the High Commissioner’s official residence in Canberra with few breaks, no leave entitlements and little pay.

Justice Elizabeth Raper said the invisibility of employees entrapped within domestic servitude breeds exploitation and unlawful practices. Source: Getty / Jasmin Merdan

Key Points

• Indian born Seema Shergill came to work as a domestic servant for then Indian High Commissioner Navdeep Suri Singh in 2015.
• Justice Elizabeth Raper said Shergill worked under "slave-like" conditions for Navdeep Suri Singh.
• Raper said a penalty was necessary to deter diplomat employers from exploiting foreign nationals working for them.

A former Indian High Commissioner to Australia has been ordered to pay almost $100,000 to a woman who previously worked in his home in what the Federal Court has called "slave-like conditions".

Navdeep Suri Singh had failed to comply with an order to pay more than $136,000 in a liability judgment in the case after it was found Suri had paid his employee about $9 a day.

This additional judgment has been handed down as a penalty for breaching Australia's Fair Work Act.

In total, former Indian High Commissioner to Australia Navdeep Suri Singh has been ordered to pay more than $230,000 to his ex-employee. Source: AAP / Lukas Coch

Indian-born Seema Shergill came to Australia to work as a domestic servant in the home of then-Indian High Commissioner Suri in 2015.

Shergill had her passport taken from her and worked seven days a week, living and working at the High Commissioner's official residence in Canberra.

She was not permitted to take leave and was only allowed outside the house for brief periods when looking after Suri's dog.

The small amount of pay provided for Shergill's work was deposited into an Indian bank account set up by Suri which the employee was unable to access in Australia.

Shergill escaped the situation after Suri and his wife attempted to pressure her into signing papers to say she was being paid a salary.

In her judgement, Justice Elizabeth Raper said Suri's wife told Shergill "that if she refused to sign it, she would be sent back to India", and that "such was Ms Shergill's fear of repercussions that she fled without any of her possessions and slept on the streets".

Raper described Shergill as "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."

In Raper's judgment, she said the circumstances of this case fell "within this definition of slave-like conditions", and while she found there were nine separate contraventions of the Fair Work Act, there was "no evidence of any cooperation or remorse" from Suri.

He was ordered to pay $97,200 to Shergill within 60 days.

Raper noted a penalty was necessary to deter diplomat employers from exploiting foreign nationals who may enter Australia, especially those on diplomatic or consular domestic worker visas, and said this was not the first such case to arise.

She referred to a case of a domestic worker who worked for a former High Commissioner of Pakistan at her diplomatic residence in Canberra, which involved the employee "working excessive hours with minimal breaks, not being given annual leave and being paid less than award minimum wages".

SBS News has contacted the Indian High Commission for comment.