The Gloriavale Christian community has sought a High Court injunction forcing Westland Dairy Company to continue collecting milk from its three farms, saying the farms are not in breach of employment law.
The legal action comes a month after Westland Dairy Company announced it would cease taking Gloriavale milk from June 13, following an Employment Court ruling that several of the Christian community’s businesses used child labour and treated workers as volunteers when they were employees entitled to be paid minimum wage.
Both parties agreed Westland would continue collecting milk until an injunction decision was made.
Gloriavale’s Canaan Farming Dairy Ltd sought the injunction against Westland Dairy Company at a hearing in front of Justice Jan-Marie Doogue in the High Court at Christchurch on Monday.
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Acting for Gloriavale’s farms, Richard Raymond, QC, argued the farms were completely separate from the businesses related to the Employment Court ruling.
Any suggestion Gloriavale’s farms were not adhering to employment law was “knee-jerk, hyped up nonsense”, he said.
Westland was within its rights to stop collecting milk if it felt Gloriavale’s farms were not complying...
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