Former Gloriavale worker scarred by third-degree burn wants businesses closed until safety and pay issues are sorted

Friday, 27 May 2022

Former Gloriavale member Faithful Disciple says the skin on his ankle was completely burnt off in a traumatic industrial accident, and he is keen to see enforcement of higher safety standards at the Christian Community’s businesses.

GRAPHIC CONTENT WARNING: Evidence of Faithful Disciple’s work at the Gloriavale Christian Community is seared into his flesh.

He suffered an excruciating third degree burn to his ankle when a stream of 103C water shot into his gumboot as he struggled to fix a boiler line.

“I’m pretty sure I screamed before it hit me, I went into shock about two minutes later … I passed out, and I thought I was dying, I couldn’t make myself breath any more.”

The 2018 accident was never reported to WorkSafe, and is not among the eight notifications of Gloriavale workplace incidents logged with the agency over the past five years.

Gloriavale businesses have links to the dairy and meat processing industries, and provide work for transport companies.

The most recent report on May 2, almost four years to the day after Disciple’s injury, was about another offal factory worker getting a third degree burn, and only days earlier police passed on concerns about a 13-year-old driving a roller at the factory.

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Earlier this year Gloriavale leaver Faithful Disciple took his first ever paid holiday, a novel experience after being left “absolutely physically devastated” by the long hours expected of workers at Gloriavale.

Last week Value Proteins and the adjacent oil processing unit where Disciple was injured were among Gloriavale businesses visited by WorkSafe officials, and inspectorate head Simon Humphries says it will decide “appropriate outcomes.”

Having left Gloriavale with his family just over a year ago, Disciple is distressed, but not surprised, that workplace injuries continue to occur, and he would like the community’s businesses closed at least temporarily so safety and pay issues outlined in an Employment Court case can be addressed.

Disciple gave evidence for three fellow Gloriavale leavers who earlier this month won their claim against community leaders, several companies operated under their tax-exempt charitable trust, and the Labour Inspectorate.

Chief Employment Court Judge Christina Inglis found Daniel Pilgrim, Levi Courage and Hosea Courage were employees who had been working since the age of 6, roundly rejecting assertions they were simply doing “chores” at the behest of their parents, and reversing two previous labour inspectorate reports that classed them as “volunteers” not subject to labour laws entitling them wages and holiday pay.

Gloriavale leaders issued a public apology on Friday for failing to prevent labour exploitation and sexual abuse, and they gave assurances that children no longer worked in its businesses, and were now banned from worksites.

Faithful Disciple says the accident that left him scarred for life was in part responsible for him being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Silenced by fear

Disciple says Government agencies are ill prepared to deal with the power Gloriavale leaders wield over community members.

“It’s totally different working with a cult, to working with a business, they went and interviewed people, and they didn’t understand what they were hearing.”

Acutely aware of the trouble it would cause if authorities got wind of his accident, he did not seek hospital treatment at the time, instead opting for care from a Gloriavale midwife experienced in dressing burns.

After four-and-a-half weeks, before his skin had properly healed, he was pressed back into service, working 12-hour days.

“When I stand still for more than 30 seconds to a minute, my foot will start tingling and itching, but nowhere near as bad as it used to. I just had to keep moving or sit down, standing still wasn’t an option.

Many former members of the Christian Community at Haupiri have left the West Coast and settled around Timaru where they are assisted by the Gloriavale Leavers Support Trust. It estimates 80 people, about half under the age of 16, have left in the past two years.

“That's wearing off, but I’ll have the scar for the rest of my life.”

Disciple, his wife Loving and their eight children are settled in South Canterbury where he works as an assistant warehouse manager, a job he loves, and where his boss has given him two pay rises and several letters of appreciation.

“I feel good about that, finally getting appreciated.”

But 35 years in the Gloriavale Christian community he was born into have taken a toll, and Disciple has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder brought on by the accident, overwork, psychological stress and the seemingly hopeless battle to effect change at Gloriavale.

Disciple fears the work load on those left behind will increase as more families leave, and he talked to leader Howard Temple in early 2020 about the need for a total restructure.

“I said we needed some really fact-based, evidence-based discussions about what our businesses were doing and where our demographics were headed.

“We were getting shorter and shorter of labour, so it was a real struggle.

“The people that really care end up being terribly overworked, and I found myself in that position, I took on too many jobs to keep the place running.”

This photograph was taken two days after Faithful Disciple’s accident at Gloriavale in 2018. Water heated to 103C ran down his leg into his industrial gumboot, burning about 10 per cent of his body, with his ankle worst affected.

Risky disgusting business

As a shift worker, getting sufficient sleep was almost impossible in a hostel housing 11 families, and Disciple puts his accident down to exhaustion, juggling too many jobs and lack of proper training.

He had gone to work having snatched five hours sleep after a 17-hour shift, and he says Value Proteins staff worked 12-hour shifts six days a week at peak times.

“We might get Sunday off.

“We all got trained into this … almost working like robots.”

Rendering is a smelly, noisy, dangerous business where offal (guts, heads and hocks) trucked in from abattoirs and meat processors is ground up, cooked to remove fat, then dried into a meal exported to the United States, UK and Indonesia for use in stock and pet food.

Hopeful Christian led the community he founded for more than 40 years, and served jail time for an indecent assault committed when it was based at Springbank near Rangiora in the early 1990.

Cervine or deer offal is favoured because it produces high protein meal, and Disciple says there was talk of trucking it to Gloriavale from the North Island.

Given the raw material, Disciple says the tiniest cut is quickly infected. “It’s the most disgusting stuff to work with.”

Small burns from hot pipes or steam are not unusual, and other sources in the rendering industry concur with that, but they say that third degree burns are rare.

A litany of injuries

Notifications to WorkSafe about incidents at Gloriavale have included people cutting off fingers or finger tips, workers overcome by chemical fumes from cleaners, dangerous use of a diesel heater next to an open container of oil, and a worker nearly losing an eye.

Historical examples of children being hurt during the now defunct moss harvesting operation have come to light, and Leavers Support Trust head Liz Gregory regularly hears of accidents. “It’s astounding it’s so common.”

In 2020 media reports of long work hours and on-the-job injuries sparked two visits from government agencies.

“WorkSafe turned up, did a walk through and identified a few little hazards, and walked off. They didn’t want to go in deep,” Disciple says.

Shortly afterwards an internal newsletter to Gloriavale bretheren referred to accusations being made by “the evil forces that surround us continually,” but it said the men’s log books showed acceptable work hours, and “the important thing to learn from this is to have the paperwork right.”

In a public apology made on Friday, Gloriavale leaders say they have restructured their business operations to allow parents to be with their children from 3pm, and welcome any audits of their workplaces, policies and procedures.

The newsletter noted there were “too many accidents” among its 250 male and female workers, with fatigue and inattention listed as factors, and there was a need to “see if we can cut them down a bit,” although “11 accidents to 112 men (sic) may not be too extreme, if all accidents were notified.”

Cooper culture

Gloriavale founder Hopeful Christian (previously Neville Cooper) died four years ago at the age of 92, but Disciple says he had “god-like status” among those remaining, and his attitudes cast a long shadow.

Six women who previously lived at Gloriavale want their day in court over their treatment as volunteers.

“Cooper culture is do it the cheapest.

“He had just no time for any real safety programmes or safe work practices… He talked about safety a lot but he didn’t allow any investment in PPE and that sort of thing.

“It’s like he [Cooper] is still running things, it’s like you can’t change anything ever, even though he’s gone.

“We identified very closely with what you’d hear about communist Russia in the 1970s, making big glorious machines and things, but safety was not a consideration at all.

What We Believe, a 118-page document outlining the community’s beliefs, discourages cooperation with authorities, and says members must never disclose any personal or inappropriate information about the community or any of its members to outsiders, including the news media.

Members also undertake never to take any legal action against the community, or any legal entity associated with it, “nor bring any of these before any government or other authority.”

Moo Chews Facebook page posted this response in 2021 when asked about Gloriavale’s involvement with its milk bites. Moo Chews has since acknowledged the product is made at Gloriavale where it was designed and developed.

The Labour Inspectorate perused What We Believe during its 2017 and 2021 investigations into the employment status of Gloriavale workers, and Judge Inglis said that even a cursory reading should have set loud alarm bells ringing.

The judge said it was clear workers were taught how to respond to outsiders, and that message was routinely reinforced by the leadership group who placed strict controls around engagement with outside agencies.

In court Disciple gave evidence of being kept away from officials visiting the meal plant to prevent him making negative comments, and “loyalists” were strategically placed near inspectors, so they were the ones interviewed.

For nine years Gregory has been helping families exit the community, and she regularly hears of workplace injuries. “It’s astounding it’s so common.”

Good character is a factor considered when awarding government-endorsed Fern Mark licences valued by exporters, and Moo Chews is one of two Gloriavale products with licences under review.

It irks her authorities have taken so long to realise they were being hoodwinked, and remains convinced the religious nature of the community made agencies reluctant to act sooner and more decisively.

She cites the 2017 Labour Inspectorate report, which talks about the importance of not making “moral judgements” about Gloriavale, before deciding that chances of successfully proving breaches of employment law were slight, and further investigation might “cause considerable disruption and use valuable resources without deriving any real benefit”.

What now?

The full ramifications of the Employment Court finding will be revealed in future judgments determining liability for what is likely to be millions of dollars in unpaid wages, and whether the Labour Inspectorate breached its statutory duty in the way it concluded its investigations

The inspectorate invited others who might have cases in the wake of the court ruling to lay complaints, and it has received two so far.

Six former female residents of the Christian Community, have also won the right to have their case over the volunteer question heard in the Employment Court.

Charities Services has opened a new investigation into community’s charitable status, and Gloriavale businesses are copping fallout from the first court case as companies wake up to the reputational risk of being associated with child labour and worker exploitation.

Westland Dairy is “investigating legal avenues” to suspend milk collection from Gloriavale’s dairy farms.

Last year Westland Dairy’s supply and environment general manager Mark Lockington said the company regularly engaged with farmers about their obligations as suppliers, which included their legal obligations regarding staff employment contracts.

Meat processor Silver Fern Farms is pulling out of supplying offal to Value Proteins, and both Alliance Group and ANZCO Foods are also reconsidering their relationships with the factory. As exporters, all three companies report under the UK Modern Slavery Act.

Public consultation on proposed New Zealand modern slavery legislation closes on June 7, and last week about 150 people attended a business webinar on the issue co-hosted by World Vision which wants mandatory reporting for all entities, a public register to record compliance, and financial penalties for those that fail to comply with modern slavery law.

The Leavers Support Trust assiduously avoids commenting on whether companies and consumers should boycott Gloriavale and the products it makes, such as Moo Chews, the popular children’s milk-based snack, but Gregory admits it is heartening to see acknowledgement of the harm done.

“We have decided to let natural consequences flow and if this is the natural consequence of their illegal behaviour and exploitation, then they (Gloriavale) have to wear that.”

Those consequences include the possibility of Gloriavale’s two honey brands losing UMF licences regarded as essential for export, and Fern Mark licences for Moo Chews and Pure Vitality deer velvet health supplements.

Financial losses are clearly a worry for Gloriavale leaders, and in seeking public forgiveness for their previous shortcomings, they warned that any commercial boycott of its businesses would have a significant impact on the lives of members, and the wider West Coast economy.

Thanks to Working for Families payments claimed to be worth $4.5m a year, Disciple does not believe residents will go hungry if Gloriavale enterprises were to close at least temporarily.

In the case of Westland Dairy, he says the milking season ends soon, so the cows can be dried off and Gloriavale then has until mid-August to get its house in order to save its milk contract.

“It’s the perfect moment to send a very, very clear message.”

Based on his own experience, Disciple is confident that if all Gloriavale families were given a two-week holiday away from the community, with the time and space to reflect, many would never go back.

“It doesn’t take very long if they are away from that constant stream of indoctrination, away from the pressure of what everyone else is thinking of them.”