61 former Gloriavale workers file almost $40m claim for years of unpaid labour
Sixty-one former Gloriavale members are seeking almost $40m compensation for years of unpaid labour, denied employment entitlements, and workplace abuse.
The statement of claim filed with the Employment Relations Authority in Christchurch on Wednesday totals $39.4m in lost wages, holiday pay, compulsory KiwiSaver contributions, compensation for the failure to provide written employment agreements, and exemplary damages.
The statement says the applicants worked in conditions that were “forced child labour, workplace abuse and servitude”.
One of the applicants, Ruby Trust, said it had been a long journey from leaving Gloriavale 10 years ago to making a claim made possible by successful Employment Court cases.
“I never thought we’d ever get to this point but it’s good to see that we’ve come this far,” she said.
She began working and cleaning in teams in the community’s commercial-scale kitchen, laundry and sewing room aged 10 or 11, and from age 16 also worked as a relief worker in the community’s childcare centres.
“There were no safety rules or anything like that that we were taught. If you get cut, go put a plaster on and then go back to cutting the veggies. There was no real supervision. It was just fend for yourself,” she said.
She said she would work with bruises, burns and cuts on her hands while run down and worn out.
“We never actually had a choice. If we didn’t work we didn’t eat or we were yelled at,” she said.
The Employment Court confirmed in 2022 and 2023 that former Gloriavale members were employees, not volunteers, and in 2024 the court found their employer was the Overseeing Shepherd of the Gloriavale community, currently Stephen Standfast.
In August, the court found they were failed by labour inspectors who did not properly investigate extremely serious allegations of forced labour, child labour, slavery and servitude at the Christian community since 2017.
The leavers also filed an application to file their claims outside of the usual timeframes, due to exceptional circumstances. Those included the Labour Inspectorate’s failures, and the authoritarian and isolated environment in which they were raised, which meant they previously lacked knowledge of their employment rights.
The claim says the applicants did not receive an employment contract, wages, public holidays, or their full annual holiday leave entitlement.
They were in a sustained abusive environment, worked excessively long hours in dangerous conditions, and were subjected to a physical, emotional, and psychological discipline regime over the entirety of their childhood and teenage years.
It says the work conditions amounted to child labour, in breach of the Employment Relations Act and New Zealand’s international human rights treaty obligations.
It said the ready access to child labour was a significant factor in the success of the Gloriavale business model, and members of the community were denied food and publicly shamed if they failed to work hard enough.
Disobedience could result in being berated for hours at a shepherds and servants meeting. The applicants were subjected to rigorous, sometimes violent, supervision in their work.
Some of the leavers received money into their bank account, which they had no control over, for labour services provided, but it would immediately be taken out and put into the Gloriavale sharing account.
“For most of their working life in Gloriavale the applicants were trapped.”
Trust said she was raised to believe that disobeying the leaders meant eternal damnation.
“We were so brainwashed into believing that if we didn’t say yes to everything the leaders said, that we were damned. We didn’t have a voice. We didn’t have a say in what we did or what we could do. It was if you don’t do this, you’re going to hell. You’re sinning. You’re going against God’s wishes.”
Leaving meant rebuilding from scratch with an education only suited to working in the community, not the outside world.
“I had to relearn how to live. I didn’t even know how to pick up a phone or use a phone.”
She has since built a career and now works at one of the largest job sites on the West Coast.
Trust said while Gloriavale people should get paid for their work like any other New Zealanders, the case was not just about the money.
“It’s pretty much telling Gloriavale that they shouldn’t be treating kids and children the way they did…they ended up getting greedy and turning it into a money-making business and not what it was supposed to be.”
She also hopes the case sends a message to those still inside the community.
“I would like to see people in there, women in there, to be able to get paid for what they do. I want them to be compensated and looked after.”