Gloriavale workers’ court hearing begins

CHRISTCHURCH: A former Gloriavale member has told the Employment Court she would work until she fell asleep as a teenager in the closed Christian community.

Yesterday marked the beginning of a fiveweek hearing before chief judge Christina Inglis in Christchurch, where 49 witnesses will provide evidence.

Serenity Pilgrim and Anna Courage, Rose Standtrue, Crystal Loyal, Pearl Valor and Virginia Courage are arguing their years of domestic work in the sect were as employees, rather than as volunteers.

Gloriavale’s leaders deny the claims that the women were employees or were under the absolute control of the ‘‘shepherds’’, the community’s leaders.

Ms Pilgrim was the first of the plaintiffs to provide evidence, and said she had no life outside of work as a teenager.

‘‘It was work or get told off,’’ she said. ‘‘Half the time I didn’t eat proper meals because I had to work.’’

She said she worked on a fourday rotation of cooking, cleaning, laundry and preparation for the next day.

She started working from the age of 7 or 8 and was gradually given more work until she finished school, when she began working an average of 90 hours a week, she said.

The hardest work was cooking, on which she said she sometimes worked from 3am until 9pm without proper breaks and restricted toilet breaks.

‘‘If toilet breaks were more than five minutes, they’d ask what was going on. ‘‘I’d just fall asleep at the table.’’

In his opening statement, the six women’s barrister Brian Henry told the court the nature of their work conditions were as employees and were abusive.

‘‘Put simply, they’re not voluntary. They are, as women’s working conditions in New Zealand in 2022, in our submission, scandalous,’’ he said.

‘‘The truth is it is dark.’’

The women were essentially living in a working hostel, producing 11,500 meals a week and sleeping in rooms with up to eight people, Mr Henry said.

‘‘This isn’t a home, it’s a hostel.’’ Gloriavale’s barrister Phillip Skelton QC said in his opening statement that the community operated like a family, and everyone was both provided for and expected to contribute.

‘‘They do not work for wages or reward or enter into contracts of employment.

‘‘Most people do unpaid work at home to support their families,’’ he said.

‘‘If the court finds the women of Gloriavale are employees, it will not be recognising the real nature of the relationship actually as it is or was. It will instead be dictating what it considers the nature of the relationship should have been.’’

Women who were current members of Gloriavale were offended by the plaintiffs’ claims, and they were happy with their choice to stay and contribute to the community, he said.

Ms Pilgrim, who left Gloriavale two years ago, said leaving had helped her think for herself and truly understand freedom and happiness.

‘‘In Gloriavale you were happy because you needed to be, and you were told to be,’’ she said.

‘‘It definitely wasn’t fun, and it definitely was not freedom.’’ — RNZ