A housemaid named Gnaparagasm Nishanthini of Eravur, who had been employed in a house in Saudi Arabia for 15 years without a salary, has received Rs. 4l.9 million as arrears of pay due to the intervention of Foreign Employment Minister Thalatha Athukorala.
This is the biggest salary arrears received by an expatriate worker in the history of the foreign employment sector.
Nishanthini, born on December 11, 1986, had gone to Saudi Arabia in 2000 at the age of 14 without registering at the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment.
She had been employed at the same residence for 15 years but her employer had not paid her any salary. In 2005, she had gone and obtained refuge at the Suraksha Women’s Welfare Centre maintained at the Sri Lanka Embassy in Saudi Arabia. Minister Athukorala, who came to know about her predicament, had directed the labour consultant at the Sri Lanka Embassy to lodge a complaint to the Saudi Labour Ministry about the matter.
The Saudi Labour Ministry had obtained a payment of Saudi Riyal 123,400 equivalent to SL Rs. 4,936,000 as arrears of pay to her. The Saudi Government was taking legal action against the errant employer.