Bank of New Zealand wants to close the accounts of Gloriavale, a Christian community convicted of child labor. But Gloriavale is fighting in Court to keep them open.
The Christian Church Community Trust, known as Gloriavale, is based at Haupiri on New Zealand’s South Island west coast. They are about 90 families with a population of 600.
The community became famous in New Zealand after it opened its doors and shared its unique lifestyle in a three-part documentary series from 2014 to 2016. It showed an extremely conservative religious and nearly self-sufficient group which sparked divided opinions about them.
People live primarily from agriculture, wear the same outdated outfits, pray God first to heal when they are ill, orbid any physical contact between the couples before their marriage and any use of contraception.
Some view the community as a sect or cult, which they deny. People who decide to leave are ex-communicated.
According to their website, the community mostly lives on revenue from a large dairy farm and a deer farm. They run a few factories that transform agricultural products. They also own and operate a couple of light aircraft for scenic flights. People can visit the community, hear the gospel being preached or attend some concerts they organize.
In May last year, an Employment Court found three former members began working in the community from age 6, considering them employees rather than volunteers.
David Pilgrim, Hosea Courage and Levi Courage challenged Labor Inspectorate decisions declining to investigate their labor conditions because they were volunteers.
The Court found their tasks from 6 to 14 could not be considered “chores” given the commercial nature of what they did, which was “strenuous, difficult and sometimes dangerous.”
They could work up to 70 hours a week. Community leaders and authority figures referred to as “shepherds,” could hit them or withhold their food if they didn’t work fast enough.
Levi Courage testified in Court that, when he was 15, they once had to fulfill an order for 200,000 honey jars in just three days. He and several other boys worked for 50 hours without sleep, had a four-hour break and then worked another 72 hours straight to finish the order.
Consequently, BNZ decided to terminate its 40-year commercial relationship with Gloraviale, arguing this child labor case was against its human rights policy. In July, the bank gave Gloriavale 3 months to find another bank before having their accounts closed.
But the community wants to remain a customer, and the case made its way to Court without a solution found between the two parties. Several banks, including ASB and Kiwibank, refused to open accounts for Gloraviale’s commercial entities.
At a hearing at the Christchurch High Court on May 30, Gloraviale now seeks an interim injunction to keep its bank account open. At the end of last year, the community won a similar injunction preventing BNZ from closing the accounts pending further legal proceedings.
In August 2022 and following the Employment Court ruling, six former members brought up a case to the Employment Court over years of unpaid domestic work.
The community claims the members would be unable to eat if the accounts were closed.
At the hearing, Gloraviale’s lawyer argued that BNZ didn’t have a rational and valid reason included in the law to justify the bank removing the account and that it can’t do it only because it doesn’t like someone, according to Stuff.
BNZ defended its right to stop serving a client and argued the nine million New Zealand dollars (US$5.4 million) sitting in the account would not be forfeited or frozen if the accounts were to close.
The child labor cases led other companies willing to stop collaborating with the Christian community.
One of Gloriavale’s companies won an interim injunction forcing the Westland Dairy company to keep collecting milk from the community, which cited labor law breaches for suspending a contract worth NZ$8 million a year.
Gloriavale businesses lost a license authenticating their Mānuka honey, the mānuka being a tree endemic to New Zealand and Australia. Some meat companies stopped supplying Gloriavale with offal, processed in their rendering plant for pet food.
The community issued an apology in May 2022 for various abuses that occurred in the community. It said much had changed since its founder and leader, Neville Cooper, also known as Hopeful Christian and described by child labor victims as a dictator, died in 2018.
In 1995, Hopeful Christian was convicted of sexual assault charges, but BNZ kept the community as its customer.
A decision on the case is expected in a few weeks.
