Sent to work at age 6, beaten and starved: One boy's experience of 'volunteering' at Gloriavale

Monday, 21 February 2022

A former Gloriavale member has told a court he was beaten with a shovel and starved for not working fast enough when he was a child in the community.

Hosea Courage is one of a group of former Gloriavale members fighting against the Government’s decision to support the community leaders in classifying them as volunteers.

A group of leavers has lodged a case in the Employment Court against the attorney-general and Gloriavale leaders. A hearing before Chief Judge Christina Inglis is taking place this week, which will decide whether Gloriavale members are employees or volunteers.

The decision would have impacts on those both currently and previously living at Gloriavale regarding their working conditions, pay and employment rights.

**READ MORE:

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* Gloriavale leavers launch petition and protests to get Government inquiry

**

Courage, 19, said when he was 6 years old he worked at the community’s moss farm gathering moss with a fork and sorting it in the processing plant.

“It was dusty and loud and required you to work fast. There was no safety equipment, no ear muffs, safety glasses. I was hit by one of the supervisors on two occasions, six times on the back side with a shovel handle, and I was expected to go back to work. I had bruises for three days,” he said.

The leaders would also withhold food from him as punishment if he did not work fast enough.

“If you didn’t work, you didn’t eat. They would tell my parents I was not permitted to eat dinner. This was organised by the work manager as punishment,” he said.

At 9, he went to work on a dairy farm, at 14 to a piggery and at 15 he left school to work full time at a processing plant. This involved working 12 hours a day and his only time off was for prayer on Sundays.

He said the community founder, the late Hopeful Christian, would tell parents to hit their children.

He worked after school from 2pm to 6pm Monday to Friday and 6am to 6pm on Saturdays.

Daniel Pilgrim told the court he, and a group of boys, were hit with a grubber handle by Vigilant Standtrue while working in the community gardens when he was 6 years old.

He also worked in the moss shed, and had to do early morning milking, and later worked in the community’s trophy hunting business for up to 70 hours a week.

He was given only a one-week holiday, no sick pay, and had no access to his bank account. He was punished by not being allowed to eat dinner and having to sit on the stage in the dining hall as a way of public humiliation for “playing up” at work.

He said the leaders controlled the rosters, and he would be woken up at 3.30am and told to get to work.

He said the legal advice offered consisted of a one-minute conversation with a lawyer engaged by the leaders.

The court heard a secret recording of a meeting of the Pilgrim family and the leaders before they decided to leave the community in 2020.

Howard Temple is heard saying: “Total and complete surrender. Fore sake it all. Nothing else is acceptable.”

Pilgrim said the family decided to leave because they did not want to give “total surrender and reject all our views that we held”. He said since leaving the Gloriavale community he now got paid for work, could decide to travel, eat and wear what he wanted and talk to whomever he wanted.

“It’s the difference between a slave and a free man,” he said.

Lawyer for the defendants Scott Wilson put it to Pilgrim that the community was self-supporting and provided everything members needed including education and medical care as well as leisure activities.

The leavers’ lawyer, Brian Henry, told the court Gloriavale was a totally isolated community and its people lived a life without basic human rights. Leaders withheld food from members who disobeyed them and had complete control over people’s lives.

“There is no negotiating power in this community. If you disagree then you go to one of their meetings … and you find out their ability to rule. They can deny you everything, they are the rule makers and the enforcers of the rules.”

He said the leaders coached members to say they were volunteers, so they were not required to PAYE and not entitled to minimum standards.

The members had to submit to how, where and when they worked without any choice, so they could not be volunteers, he said.

He said the Christian Partners, who worked at Gloriavale's businesses, were paid, but their bank accounts were controlled by the community and the money was immediately transferred into the community's account. He said the leaders claim that members got independent legal advice was “fiction” and a “scam” because the lawyers were chosen and paid for by the leaders.

The case comes after an investigation by the Labour Inspectorate concluded members of the Gloriavale Christian community could not be classed as employees.

Stuff previously reported the Inspectorate investigated the employment status of people living and working at Gloriavale in 2017 after concerns raised by Charities Services, and again in 2020 after allegations of long working hours were made by two community members.

As a registered charity, Gloriavale’s Christian Church Community Trust and its 15 business entities, ranging from dairy farms to honey production, are exempt from paying tax.

Annual trust financial statements to Charities Services since 2009 say the total number of volunteers fluctuated from a low of 25 to a high of 90, and the total average hours they worked per week ranged from 750 to 3446 (30 to 37 hours per person).

*CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly named the defendants’ lawyer as Hamish Rossie. Their lawyer is Scott Wilson. (Amended February 21, 2022, 7.46pm)