Australia’s former security contractor at the Manus Island detention centre was directly responsible for violence that broke out in February and in which Iranian asylum seeker Reza Barati was killed, a formal complaint lodged by the Human Rights Law Centre on Tuesday claims.

The multinational security company G4S failed to maintain basic human rights standards and protect asylum seekers from harm, the complaint lodged to the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) alleges.

The Australian government contracted G4S to oversee management and security at the centre from February 2013 to March 2014.

Rachel Ball, the director of advocacy at the Human Rights Law Centre, said under government-endorsed OECD guidelines, multinational companies were obliged to respect human rights and avoid contributing to human rights abuses.

“In February this year G4S guards at the detention facility on Manus Island went on what can only be described as a violent rampage,” she said.

“Reza Berati was killed, one man lost his eye, another had his throat slit, and 77 others were treated for serious injuries including broken bones and lacerations.

“G4S was directly involved in this violence through its role in arbitrary detention and poor conditions that led to the unrest, and through the direct participation of its employees in the violence.”

Ball said the company had not been held to account for its role in the violence, prompting the joint complaint between her organisation and the British non-government organisation Rights and Accountability in Development.

The complaint has called on the company to be more transparent and provide documents about the training procedures for staff and incident logs; provide remediation to victims of violence; refuse to participate in the arbitrary detention of asylum seekers, while also ensuring human rights conditions were improved for those detained, with adequately trained employees.

A spokesman for G4S Australia and New Zealand said it had received the complaint on Tuesday morning and was considering its response.

“However, G4S is confident it has complied with all of its human rights and legal obligations,” he said.

“It should be noted that the Human Rights Law Centre’s complaints refer largely to the policy of offshore detention and to matters over which G4S had no direct control.

“G4S has fully cooperated with all Australian and Papua New Guinean government investigations into the Manus Island riots, and with the Australian Senate inquiry.”

But a former Manus Island security officer, Martin Appleby, who spoke exclusively to Guardian Australia in April about his concerns regarding security and management at the facility, said on Tuesday that centre staff were grossly under-trained.

He no longer works at the facility, where he was responsible for training security staff, and although he was not there when the violence broke out he was “not surprised at all” when he heard about it.

G4S was experienced in managing correctional facilities and not detention centres, which required an entirely different approach, he said.

“We’ve not got a [correctional] dormitory anywhere in the state of Victoria that would house 125 people in a tin shed,” Appleby said.

“Correction centres and detention centres are two operationally different institutions and unfortunately I think [detention centre staff] learn as they tread.

“During initial training sessions I conducted I didn’t have an interpreter with me, and it was impossible to conduct the level of training required to work in such a complex and difficult environment.

“We were delivering four days of training on defensive tactics. This training in my view should have taken at least six weeks.”

Of about 350 security personnel at the centre, about 90 were expats, he said.

“I was shocked and concerned by the inadequacy of training provided for local staff with little or no experience,” he said.

Appleby said he raised his concerns with management but it had failed to implement any changes to address the situation.

Keren Adams, a lawyer with the British human rights law firm Leigh Day, which is assisting in the complaint, said G4S must commit to improving staff training and adhering to international human rights standards.

While any findings made against them as a result of the complaint would not be legally binding, Adams said it would be in the company’s best interest to adopt any recommendations made.

“While these findings are not binding in the way a court decision would be, they are highly significant to a company’s reputation and could impact on the ability of a company to obtain future contracts of this kind,” she said.

It would also act as a warning to similar companies, Adams said.

“G4S’s contract to run Manus has ended but Transfield has stepped into its place and there is little indication that conditions at the centre have materially improved,” she said.

“Companies that profit from the Australian government’s inhumane detention policies should be aware that they will also be held accountable for their actions.”