Indian mission told to follow Aussie laws: Sydney consulate fined $10,620 for "unfair" dismissal of employee

Sydney Consul general

By A Representative
In what is being interpreted by the Indian diaspora across Australia as “not a very bright event” for the community, the Indian consulate in Sydney has been fined $10,620 over “unfair dismissal” of an employee, who claims to be a whistleblower, Hitendra Kumar, an immigrant working with it as a driver.
A report published in the “South Asia Times (SAT)” (June 2016), a periodical published from Melbourne, Australia, has said that after Kumar’s employment was terminated, he challenged “the unfair dismissal” in the Fair Work Commission court.
Talking about what went wrong, Kumar has been quoted as saying, “When I began to highlight serious issues and discrepancies in what was going on at the consulate, I was sacked on a trumped up charge. I’m delighted that I’ve been vindicated by the Courts.”
The judgement went in favour of the employee after the consulate put up stiff resistance despite the court providing the option for an out-of-course settlement, which could have “saved a lot of money and embarrassment and litigation for the consulate.”

Based on documents obtained by Ashok Kumar of the “Indian Subcontinent Times, Sidney, the report said, the consulate “opted to go ahead with the court with proceedings and thereby incurring three times the cost and ended up paying 12 weeks’ salary $10,620.”

Ashok Kumar

“The consulate ignored the fact that working laws are different in Australia than in India and it had to follow Australian procedures when dealing with any Australian citizen or permanent resident as the employee of the consulate”, the report said.
The report quoted Transport Workers’ Union acting secretary Richard Olsen welcoming the decision by the Fair Work Commission to award a driver “unfairly” dismissed by the Indian consulate, saying that it would send “a clear message that no employer is above the law.”
Olsen said, “This decision sends a message to all workers in Australia, especially foreign migrants, that you have rights no matter who your boss is or what they tell you. It also sends a message to employers that even if you have diplomatic immunity, you still have to play by Australian workplace laws.”
He further said, “There are systematic problems with the exploitation of foreign workers in Australia”, adding, “From 7-Eleven, the transport industry and all the way up to foreign embassies, we have seen foreign migrants underpaid, exploited and sacked by their bosses if they speak up.”

Comments

Anonymous said…

Discuss the actual case's details mate rather than beating around the bush or at least give the link to the case order itself.

June 14, 2016

Plastic burning in homes threatens food, water and air across Global South: Study

By Jag Jivan In a groundbreaking study spanning 26 countries across the Global South , researchers have uncovered the widespread and concerning practice of households burning plastic waste as a fuel for cooking, heating, and other domestic needs. The research, published in Nature Communications , reveals that this hazardous method of managing both waste and energy poverty is driven by systemic failures in municipal services and the unaffordability of clean alternatives, posing severe risks to human health and the environment.

Economic superpower’s social failure? Inequality, malnutrition and crisis of India's democracy

By Vikas Meshram India may be celebrated as one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, but a closer look at who benefits from that growth tells a starkly different story. The recently released World Inequality Report 2026 lays bare a country sharply divided by wealth, privilege and power. According to the report, nearly 65 percent of India’s total wealth is owned by the richest 10 percent of its population, while the bottom half of the country controls barely 6.4 percent. The top one percent—around 14 million people—holds more than 40 percent, the highest concentration since 1961. Meanwhile, the female labour force participation rate is a dismal 15.7 percent.

The greatest threat to our food system: The aggressive push for GM crops

By Bharat Dogra Thanks to the courageous resistance of several leading scientists who continue to speak the truth despite increasing pressures from the powerful GM crop and GM food lobby , the many-sided and in some contexts irreversible environmental and health impacts of GM foods and crops, as well as the highly disruptive effects of this technology on farmers, are widely known today.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Urgent need to study cause of large number of natural deaths in Gulf countries

By Venkatesh Nayak* According to data tabled in Parliament in April 2018, there are 87.76 lakh (8.77 million) Indians in six Gulf countries, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While replying to an Unstarred Question (#6091) raised in the Lok Sabha, the Union Minister of State for External Affairs said, during the first half of this financial year alone (between April-September 2018), blue-collared Indian workers in these countries had remitted USD 33.47 Billion back home. Not much is known about the human cost of such earnings which swell up the country’s forex reserves quietly. My recent RTI intervention and research of proceedings in Parliament has revealed that between 2012 and mid-2018 more than 24,570 Indian Workers died in these Gulf countries. This works out to an average of more than 10 deaths per day. For every US$ 1 Billion they remitted to India during the same period there were at least 117 deaths of Indian Workers in Gulf ...

UP tribal woman human rights defender Sokalo released on bail

By A Representative After almost five months in jail, Adivasi human rights defender and forest worker Sokalo Gond has been finally released on bail.Despite being granted bail on October 4, technical and procedural issues kept Sokalo behind bars until November 1. The Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) and the All India Union of Forest Working People (AIUFWP), which are backing Sokalo, called it a "major victory." Sokalo's release follows the earlier releases of Kismatiya and Sukhdev Gond in September. "All three forest workers and human rights defenders were illegally incarcerated under false charges, in what is the State's way of punishing those who are active in their fight for the proper implementation of the Forest Rights Act (2006)", said a CJP statement.

Jayanthi Natarajan "never stood by tribals' rights" in MNC Vedanta's move to mine Niyamigiri Hills in Odisha

By A Representative The Odisha Chapter of the Campaign for Survival and Dignity (CSD), which played a vital role in the struggle for the enactment of historic Forest Rights Act, 2006 has blamed former Union environment minister Jaynaynthi Natarjan for failing to play any vital role to defend the tribals' rights in the forest areas during her tenure under the former UPA government. Countering her recent statement that she rejected environmental clearance to Vendanta, the top UK-based NMC, despite tremendous pressure from her colleagues in Cabinet and huge criticism from industry, and the claim that her decision was “upheld by the Supreme Court”, the CSD said this is simply not true, and actually she "disrespected" FRA.

Stands 'exposed': Cavalier attitude towards rushed construction of Char Dham project

By Bharat Dogra* The nation heaved a big sigh of relief when the 41 workers trapped in the under-construction Silkyara-Barkot tunnel (Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand) were finally rescued on November 28 after a 17-day rescue effort. All those involved in the rescue effort deserve a big thanks of the entire country. The government deserves appreciation for providing all-round support.

'Restructuring' Sahitya Akademi: Is the ‘Gujarat model’ reaching Delhi?

By Prakash N. Shah* A fortnight and a few days have slipped past that grim event. It was as if the wedding preparations were complete and the groom’s face was about to be unveiled behind the ceremonial tinsel. At 3 PM on December 18, a press conference was poised to announce the Sahitya Akademi Awards .

Search This Blog