People born into the Gloriavale community are trapped into a working structure resembling “a sweatshop”, lawyers for former members say.
But counsel for the Christian community told the Court of Appeal this week that members did not expect to be paid, and were supported by the collective.
The former leader of the community, overseeing shepherd Howard Temple, is appealing an Employment Court decision which found members were employees, rather than community volunteers, working in factories, farms or Gloriavale’s domestic teams.
Temple, 85, resigned as overseeing shepherd in August after being convicted of sexual offending against girls and women at the West Coast Christian community.
Former members felt trapped
Lawyer for former members of the community Brian Henry told the court former members suffered exhaustion, suicidal thoughts, and felt trapped by the community’s systems.
He said women in the community often worked up to 12 hours a day – 6 days a week.
Henry said it was not possible to call a person born into the community a willing volunteer within Gloriavale’s working structure.
“They are – from birth – taught submission and unity. They are separated from the real world. They are educated solely to the needs of the community and they are living under a disciplinary regime that if they step out of unity – which is nothing more that what the shepherd thinks – they are going to be disciplined,” Henry said.
Henry read from former member Rose Standtrue’s statements about the struggles that led her to leave the community.
“I felt so trapped. My parents just thought I needed to forgive and forget about what had happened to me and just move on. But you can’t just move on when it just is all going to happen again. We were taught and believed that you go to hell if you commit suicide too. But I wasn’t even really thinking about that. I just wanted my life to be over because I was real miserable. It felt like that was the only way out of Gloriavale,” Henry read.
“This is not Utopia. It’s not The Sound of Music and there’s no happy singing in the hills. Those girls talk of being suicidal as a consequence of living inside Gloriavale,” he said.
Benefits paid into community coffers
Henry said limiting member’s declared income the community ensured families could continue to claim the Working for Families benefit, which in turn was paid into community coffers.
“If the team’s women are employees and they get the minimum basic wage – when you multiply out the minimum basic wage – it’s more than $43,500 – which cancels out Working for Families.
“So their structure can’t have the women being employees because – [if] they are paid minimum wage for the hours they work – no Working for Families. So this whole structure is devised very deliberately, with very expert lawyers, to ensure very cheap labour.
“It’s a sweatshop, full stop,” Henry said.
He said in statements given to the Labour Inspectorate – as a part of investigations into the community’s working structure in 2017 and 2021 – the then leader of the commune, Howard Temple pointed out they had employed lawyers to oversee the wording of the community’s commitment document which members were encouraged to sign.
“The point is that this is something he has gone through with the lawyers. This structure of this enterprise is very carefully devised around tax, working for families benefits and it is a system that has had and awful lot of legal input,” Henry said.
Members worked to support community
Yesterday, counsel for Temple Philip Skelton KC told the court members worked to support a communal ethos – forsaking personal possessions or gain.
He said there was no intention among community members that their arrangements could constitute a contractual relationship.
“The relationships were based on shared spiritual beliefs and understandings. It’s fundamental to joining the church that you accept the ‘everything in common’ belief,” Skelton said.
Skelton told the court signing the commitment to the church – which included pledges to work for the communal interest – was a “unilateral vow to the Lord and to members of the community but was not intended to be enforceable by law”.
Skelton said central to documents outlining the commune’s ethos and way of life were statements eschewing recourse to the legal system in the event of disputes.
“No Christian should ever, at any time or for any reason, take another Christian to the law. It is better to suffer a wrong or be defrauded than to take a Christian brother to law before unbelievers,” Skelton read from a document prepared by the community entitled ‘What we believe’.
On the second day of hearings Skelton pointed out to the court that – in contrast to former member’s statements – 21 women still living at the community had offered very different perspectives of their working and living situation within the community.
“These women all wrote their evidence themselves, they weren’t lawyer crafted. They turned up in court, they gave their evidence, they were articulate, they were fluent, they were impressive. There appears to be quite a difference of perspective between those leavers who have left – and are disgruntled with life that they saw in the community – and the women who remain in the community. It’s certainly not accepted that it is a nasty society, not utopian,” Skelton said.
Appeal Court Judges, Justice Sarah Katz, Justice Jillian Mallon and Justice Neil Campbell have reserved their decision.
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