India's ex-High Commissioner fined $136,000 by Australian court for flouting ‘fair work act’

livemint.com:

abc.net.au on 5 November. The court asked Singh to pay Sherghill for unpaid wages and unfair working conditions. As per the report, Sherghill arrived in Australia in April 2015 and then she spent about a year working for the then-high commissioner at his Canberra home.

Sherghill told the court that she worked seven days a week, and promised 17.5 hours per day. The court heard that Sherghill 's work included cleaning the house, preparing meals, and tidying the garden. Also, she was let out of the house only to walk Suri's dog.

However, despite doing all these, she was initially paid the equivalent of about $7.80 per day. When she complained, Suri hiked it to $9 per day. So in total, Sherghill received around $3,400 for her 13 months of work.

Apart from this, Sherghill told the court that she had previously worked for Suri while he served as India's Ambassador to Egypt. However, this time she was solely responsible for the upkeep of the eight-bedroom house. "I was responsible for doing everything," ABC News quoted Sherghill as saying.

"When he and his wife were away, instead of my usual chores, Mr Suri or his wife usually would ask me to make large batches of samosas and freeze them, or to clean the silverware. They would call and check up on me, to ensure that I was working," she added. Sherghill even noted that Suri's wife was also 'very demanding'.

"She often nagged me to work harder, and said to me things such as, I was earning too much money," the news website quoted as saying. Later in May 2016, Sheghill fled the residence without taking any of her belongings. After that, she became homeless ahead of finding her way to the Fair Work Ombudsman.