Landmark Gloriavale employment ruling could open door for thousands of dollars in back pay
Tuesday, 10 May 2022
Former Gloriavale members who worked up to 70 hours a week for years were not volunteers, the Employment Court has ruled – a decision which could pave the way for them and others in the community to be compensated.
Three former workers brought the case against Gloriavale leaders, three of its businesses and the Labour Inspectorate after previous investigations found residents were not employees and therefore not protected by New Zealand employment laws.
Chief Judge Christina Inglis’ judgment released on Tuesday found the former members – Hosea Courage, Levi Courage and Daniel Pilgrim who were born in Gloriavale – were employees when they worked in the community’s commercial businesses from the age of 6.
“The evidence heard by the court, some of it uncontested or confirmed by Gloriavale’s witnesses, raises serious concerns across a broad range of subjects,” she said.
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It is unclear what the decision means for the future of Gloriavale but opens the door for the Labour Inspectorate to enforce minimum employment standards in the community.
It’s also not yet known whether Gloriavale leaders will be forced to pay back hundreds of thousands of dollars in wages to those who have left the community. Those in the community are told to donate all their possessions back to the community.
Now the court has clarified the Labour Inspectorate’s jurisdiction it will work with the three plaintiffs to take forward enforcement action and calculate any arrears owed, national manager Stu Lumsden said – and will determine the impact on people beyond the trio.
“The inspectorate will also continue to assist the Employment Court as it seeks to determine whether women in certain roles at Gloriavale can be considered employees.”
If the workers were getting minimum wage from the age of 16, they would have been earning between $35,000 and $44,000 a year for 40 hours a week. However, Judge Inglis found they were working sometimes more than 70 hours a week.
The judge said the workers’ contribution to the community from working six days a week vastly exceeded the costs of providing them with the necessities of life.
Gloriavale’s “housemother” Charity Christian told the court that weekly food expenditure per person at Gloriavale was about $26 to $27, around $3.80 a day.
In comparison, the Department of Corrections budgets food at $5.60 per day per prisoner.
While there is no minimum age to start work in New Zealand, children are not allowed to work during school hours, between 10pm and 6am or in jobs that could cause them harm.
Judge Inglis said there was a significant power imbalance involved in the working relationship.
The children and their parents had no choice about what or when the children worked and if they did not work fast enough they were denied food and subjected to physical and psychological punishment, including being hit.
She said people in Gloriavale had little autonomy over what they thought, what they did, who they did it with, where they did it or how they did it.
By 15, the workers were sometimes starting work at 3am and doing up to 70 hours a week, and on some occasions even more.
Standing outside the Christchurch’s justice precinct after the judgment was released, Hosea Courage said “exploitation” in Gloriavale “may not be able to be stopped unless it is closed down”.
Daniel Pilgram said he believed the Labour Inspectorate had been “hopeless” and failed to do its job.
“I understand it was going to be messy for them to step in and get involved, and I believe that’s why they didn’t, it was just a bit of a cop out really, so hopefully they will now start doing their job.”
Their priority was to see the law enforced for family and friends in Gloriavale, “so they are not being over-worked, so they have sick days, that they can make decisions about where they work”.
Glorivale’s businesses currently include a honey-making plant and a large-scale dairy farm which runs in excess of 3000 cows. The plaintiffs worked at Forest Gold Honey, Harvest Honey Ltd and petfood producer Apetiza Ltd.
Judge Inglis said it was clear Gloriavale owned substantial assets, including the purchase of a 3.115ha property at Lake Brunner for around $10m which was paid for through “belt tightening, via a reduced food budget and holiday time”.
“It is plain that the ready access to child labour constitutes a significant factor in the success of the Gloriavale business model,” she said.
She said the workers only received six days holiday a year and worked long hours under a distinct reluctance to allow time off work for illness or incapacity.
She said the serious consequences for people who did not work as expected was eternal damnation and to be expelled from the community they had been born in and thrown into a world they knew little about, were ill-equipped to live in, and which they had been brought up to believe was wrong and sinful.
She said the children left school at 15 and never set foot in a classroom again.
“Despite the apparently positive reviews from the Education Review Office, the evidence disclosed that, in reality, what was termed a work experience programme was simply the transition into full time work within the Gloriavale businesses,” she said.
It was unclear what information ERO relied on to reach its conclusions, but they should be viewed with “significant caution”, she said.
An ERO spokeswoman said it would take time to consider the findings.
Its most recent review found the Gloriavale Christian School did not have regularly reviewed policies and procedures to provide a physically and emotionally safe place for students.
Gloriavale has been subject of several Government investigations by WorkSafe, Labour Inspectorate, Teaching Council, Police, Oranga Tamaraki and the Charities Services after allegations made by former members.
Chief judge Inglis’ decision laid bare failings by several Government agencies including the Education Review Office and the Labour Inspectorate but also found Gloriavale leaders coached workers to tell authorities they were happy and volunteers.
“Loud alarm bells ought, in my view, to have been ringing from even a cursory reading of “What We Believe” [which]…makes it very clear where the power lies; that the leadership group holds absolute power and control, including in relation to work, and that members of the community submit to the leaders; and that members were not to report concerns to external agencies,” she said.
The Labour Inspectors gave evidence confirming that they had “What We Believe”, and numerous other Gloriavale documents, when carrying out their investigations in 2020 and when completing a desktop review in 2017.
What We Believe expressly sets out that “those who will not work hard at what they are capable of doing should not be given anything to eat”.
She said future judgements would focus on whether the Labour Inspectorate breached any statutory duty to the plaintiffs by the way it concluded its investigation.
MBIE's Labour Inspectorate national manager Stu Lumsden said the Labour Inspectorate welcomed the clarity the decision provided, and it would now work to determine the impact to people beyond the three plaintiffs.
'The complaints raised to the Inspectorate over Gloriavale are serious which is why we have investigated the concerns raised with us to date and have undertaken multiple visits.'
In a statement Oranga Tamariki business operations general manager Andrea Nichols said the organisation was working with children and their parents at Gloriavale to address the issues described in the decision.
Chief judge Inglis said her ruling would be referred to police to ascertain if slavery and forced labour was happening in the community. A police spokesperson said police would work with partner agencies to consider next steps.
Counsel for Gloriavale’s leaders have been approached for comment.