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Lankan diplomat’s maid served full term before absconding, says Foreign Ministry
View(s):The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) yesterday said a domestic assistant who on Thursday was ordered by the Federal Court in Australia to be paid AUD 543,000 (Rs. 107.78mn) in unpaid wages and interest by Sri Lanka’s former Deputy High Commissioner to Australia, Himalee Arunatilaka, had served a full three-year term before absconding from the residence on the eve of the diplomat’s originally intended departure from Australia.
“It is the standard practice that diplomats are facilitated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to take domestic assistants to assist their official representational duties,” an official statement said. “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 allowance approved by the Ministry as the salary of the employee has been paid to her,” it added. “The Ministry is satisfied that the said salary was paid to the domestic assistant by the employer as mutually agreed.”
According to news reports, Ms. Arunatilaka—currently Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva—also faces a large fine for breaches of employment laws. They said that, in addition to AUD 374,000 in unpaid wages, the Court ordered her to pay more than $169,000 in interest.
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