Employment Court Holds Exploitation And Child Labour: A Dark Shadow For Gloriavale

The New Zealand Employment Court has released its decision on whether the leadership “Shepherd” members of the Gloriavale Christian Community were employers.

MBIE’s Labour Inspectorate had found twice that they were not employees, but the Employment Court found this to be wrong. How could the employment watchdog get it so wrong? Hopefully, the Inspectorate can now put right, the wrong it helped to perpetuate.

It took courage for these individuals to bring these proceedings against the “Community” leaders who had exerted great power and control over these individuals, such as withholding food or other necessities of life, and publicly shaming them if they did not work or did not meet the work performance standards. Most disgustingly, if these children “were not working hard enough or fast enough they were hit” as “the blueness of the wound cleaneth away the sin”.

The decision was inevitable and right. The “Community” leaders derive great commercial benefit from the labour of some of their most vulnerable young members. Child members work long arduous hours for no pay. Instead of paying these child workers, the work they perform provides a high financial commercial return for the “Community”, or more suitably phrased the Gloriavale business and leaders.

Gloriavale is not just a self-sustaining Christian community. It is a highly complex commercial labyrinth network and enterprise, comprising trusts and companies, who operate various highly successful, multimillion dollar profit-making businesses.

Courage, under whose name the proceedings were issued, gave evidence that he worked from the age of 6, for no pay.

Gloriavale denied they were employers, and the Labour Inspectorate backed this up, saying they were volunteers. Judge Inglis holds that loud alarm bells should have been ringing from even a cursory reading of the documents available to the Labour Inspectorate at the time.

Inglis’ decision is the right decision. It not only appropriately denotes that Gloriavale leaders exploited these children, but will also now place the spotlight on and lift the lid on other types of work arrangements involving children such as newspaper outlets using children for deliveries etc.

The contents of this article are purely the opinion of the writer.

About Barbara Buckett

Our Principal, Barbara is a highly respected and experienced senior employment lawyer, having practised as a barrister and solicitor in New Zealand for over 35 years. She is widely acknowledged as an expert in the employment law field and has a proven track record of delivering excellent results for clients.

Barbara has substantial experience in resolving workplace issues and can provide advice on both employment relations and human resource issues. Barbara advises on all areas of employment law and passionately believes in resolving issues before they arise, by providing organisations with effective compliance advice and robust processes.

Barbara has extensive dispute resolution and conflict resolution experience and frequently attends formal mediations on behalf of BuckettLaw clients, as well as both informal and formal negotiations. She prides herself on taking part in procedurally fair, clear and logical dispute resolution processes and relating to all those involved to create workable outcomes.

© Scoop Media