Leavers who were interviewed had raised serious concerns about labour practices in Gloriavale, inclusing allegations of possible employment and labour breaches including excessive work hours, no holiday pay, insufficient maternity, leave, children and teens working, below minimum wage, no record keeping, etc.
Charities Services pass their concerns to the Labour Inspectorate (LI) which is part of MBIE and left it with them.
In 2017 the LI conducted a Desktop Review. They choose not to interview anyone and relied only on information given to the them by Charities Services.
Ultimately, without speaking to anyone, they determined that the workers at Gloriavale were not employees and that they could not deal with any matters of concern as it was not within their jurisdiction. The report was buried. No one knew of its existance until 2020 when similar allegations were again publicaly raised. After another failed MBIE invesigation leavers proceeded to bring and win cases in the Employment Court.