Sixty-one leavers have filed ERA claims alleging child labour, servitude and systemic wage theft

Nearly $40 million in lost wages and compensation is being sought by 61 former Gloriavale members who have filed Employment Relations Authority (ERA) claims alleging the Christian community ran on forced labour and child servitude for decades, according to reports.

The applications, lodged on Wednesday against the community's Overseeing Shepherd, allege systemic denial of basic employment entitlements across the working lives of those who grew up inside the commune.

They include wages, holiday pay, KiwiSaver contributions, parental leave and written employment agreements, Radio New Zealand reported.

Barrister Brian Henry described the claims as the inevitable reckoning for an organisation built on unpaid labour.

"They were denied wages, denied holidays, worked horrific hours and this is the consequence of someone who creates a business model based on child labour. Eventually it catches up with them," he said as quoted by RNZ.

"There is millions and millions of dollars worth of free labour that this organisation has enjoyed and that was illegal."

The ERA filings draw on two Employment Court rulings from 2022 and 2023 that established legal precedent by finding that former Gloriavale members were employees rather than willing volunteers. Those decisions found children were assigned roles from birth, with boys subjected to violent supervision on farms and in factories and girls...

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