Mount Waverley couple Kandasamy, Kumuthini Kannan sued by woman held as slave inside home

A grandmother forced into slavery in a Mount Waverley home for almost a decade is still fighting for justice, suing the couple who kept her captive for the pay and entitlements she was owed.

Kandasamy and Kumuthini Kannan are serving jail time for keeping a woman as a slave. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

A grandmother held as a slave for almost a decade, who was so malnourished her teeth fell out of her head, is suing her Mount Waverley captors for unpaid holidays and superannuation.

The woman, who was forced into servitude for eight years in a suburban home, is seeking $57k in annual leave and super entitlements from husband and wife Kandasamy and Kumuthini Kannan, who have been locked behind bars.

Discovered by paramedics in July 2015, the “domestic worker” was found shivering in a pool of her own urine in the bathroom of the Gillian Rd home where she had been trapped since July 2007.

Weighing just 40kg, and incoherent, she then spent more than two months in hospital recovering from her years of torment, during which she was beaten with a frozen chicken, burnt with boiling water and survived on sweet tea and mashed food when her teeth fell out.

Now, the woman has launched action in the Federal Circuit and Family Court, demanding she be paid what she’s owed for the 2948 days she was instructed to cook, clean and care for children.

Kumuthini Kannan leaves the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court. Picture: AAP Image

Kandasamy Kannan arrives at the Supreme Court of Victoria. Picture: NCA NewsWire

Documents lodged with the court claim the Kannans were in breach of the Fair Work Act and multiple awards when they paid their victim less than $4 a day in Indian rupee, gave her no annual leave and $0 in super while she was enslaved.

Instead, the woman argues she should have been handed $18.47 an hour under the minimum wage, and $27.71 on Sundays.

Considered a “shift worker” who was always on call, she was entitled to five weeks annual leave a year ($33,381.05) and superannuation ($22,729.99).

She was also never paid for the final week she worked ($772.05) before she was discovered by healthcare staff while her captor was at a piano recital.

In total, the woman claims $56,883.09 for unpaid super, holidays and her final week of work, along with interest, costs and “financial compensation for hurt and humiliation”.

The husband and wife were jailed for six years and eight years respectively following a 10-week trial in 2021.

Kandasamy Kannan leaves the Victorian Supreme Court. Picture: NCA NewsWire

The civil court action comes as Kumuthini Kannan pleaded guilty from prison over a February 2020 intimidation plot where she tried to stop her victim from giving evidence against her.

Kannan admitted to ringing the elderly grandmother from a payphone at Forest Hill Chase shopping centre, posing as a Tamil court interpreter and saying, “the court will not believe what you say”.

“Don’t provide testimony to the court. or they will never send you back (to India),” she said in the phone call.

“You will rot in this country until you die.”

The victim later told a court through an interpreter that “there’s no one other than Kumuthini that would talk to me like that, no-one else — it was Kumuthini”.

Kannan, who was captured on CCTV at the shopping centre, pleaded guilty to one count of attempting to pervert the course of justice and will be sentenced at a later date.

The daughter of Kannan submitted a letter to the County Court speaking of the emotional hardship and bullying that flowed from the publicity of her parents facing slavery charges.

“I have so much sympathy for the children,” Judge Martine Marich said during a pre-sentencing hearing on Thursday.

The offence carries a maximum 10-year jail term.

Lawyers for the grandmother said they were unable to comment on the Fair Work case at this time.