'Major employment issues' at Gloriavale prompted Westland Dairy's decision to stop collecting its milk
Monday, 25 July 2022
The Gloriavale Christian community has sought a High Court injunction forcing Westland Dairy Company to continue collecting milk from its three farms, saying the farms are not in breach of employment law.
The legal action comes a month after Westland Dairy Company announced it would cease taking Gloriavale milk from June 13, following an Employment Court ruling that several of the Christian community’s businesses used child labour and treated workers as volunteers when they were employees entitled to be paid minimum wage.
Both parties agreed Westland would continue collecting milk until an injunction decision was made.
Gloriavale’s Canaan Farming Dairy Ltd sought the injunction against Westland Dairy Company at a hearing in front of Justice Jan-Marie Doogue in the High Court at Christchurch on Monday.
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Acting for Gloriavale’s farms, Richard Raymond, QC, argued the farms were completely separate from the businesses related to the Employment Court ruling.
Any suggestion Gloriavale’s farms were not adhering to employment law was “knee-jerk, hyped up nonsense”, he said.
Westland was within its rights to stop collecting milk if it felt Gloriavale’s farms were not complying with the terms of the contract, or if it was not in its best interest to collect the milk, but there was no evidence to suggest this was the case, Raymond said.
Canaan Farming Dairy Ltd employed 15 staff, all of whom were adults, which was supported by affidavits provided to the court. No children had worked there since at least 2017, he said.
Westland had “completely overplayed the issues” and there were grounds to suggest it was being unreasonable, Raymond said, as its evidence of any wrongdoing within the farms was “pathetic” and had a “devastating, if not fatal blow for Gloriavale.”
Trying to lump the farms in with Gloriavale’s other businesses and tar them with the same brush was “disingenous”, Raymond submitted.
In response, Westland’s lawyer, James Craig, said the recent Gloriavale Employment Court ruling was directly relevant to its farms, as workers would often rotate their duties between the farms and the businesses in question under an associate partnership programme set up by Gloriavale.
Several of Westland’s commercial customers had expressed “major concerns over issues of compliance of New Zealand employment law” at Gloriavale, Craig said.
Concerns were raised after the Employment Court ruling as well as questions sent to Westland from Stuff.
Westland was therefore entitled to take steps to mitigate damage to its reputation and revenue, he said.
He noted Silver Fern Farms and ANZCO had terminated contracts with Gloriavale over similar employment concerns.
The associate partnership programme at Gloriavale had been previously set up for children to begin work on dairy farms and other businesses from as early as age 7, the court heard.
Some would work on the farms in the morning before school, getting up as early as 3am.
This showed a backdrop of underage employees at Gloriavale, including at its dairy farms, Craig submitted.
“Any information Canaan can provide to show they are compliant with employment regulations is welcome, but has not been forthcoming.”
Canaan Farming Dairy has a herd of about 500 cows it milks through the winter, which would be affected by Westland Dairy’s refusal to take its milk.
The contract between Canaan and Westland states all of Canaan’s milk will be collected by Westland for a 10-year period from the nominated start date, providing the terms are complied with throughout.
If the contract is completely terminated, the loss of income for Gloriavale could be up to $9 million annually according to seasonal forecasts.
In announcing an “indefinite” suspension of milk collection in June, Westland Dairy Company chief executive Richard Wyeth said collection would only resume if Gloriavale demonstrated it could “adhere to the standards and values of not only Westland, but the standards and values of the wider New Zealand community as well as our customers”.
Justice Doogue reserved her decision.