Former Gloriavale women who argued they were employees rather than volunteers while working in the Christian community have won their Employment Court case.
Their lawyer, Brian Henry, says the decision is significant, and shows the women “were treated as slaves”.
Employment Court Chief Judge Christina Inglis declared the women were employees in her reserved decision, released on Thursday, into the 10-week case brought by six women – Virginia Courage, Pearl Valor, Serenity Pilgrim, Rose Standtrue, Anna Courage and Crystal Loyal.
The women claimed they were exploited and treated like slaves while working on the community’s domestic teams, preparing food, cooking, cleaning and doing the laundry.
It was apparent that the women’s experience working at Gloriavale had left “deep scars”, the judge said.
“I was left with no doubt that they worked extremely hard, and under punishing conditions, during their time on the teams.”
In her decision, Judge Inglis said the women weren’t to be excluded from minimum entitlements and protections.
“I have reached the conclusion ... that the plaintiffs did their work ... because that is what they were told to do, what each of them had been trained to accept from birth, and the consequences of not doing what was expected (namely falling “out of unity”) were dire and well known – exclusion from the Community, from all that was familiar, from family and friends, and into a world they know little about, were ill-equipped to navigate and had been...
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