Howard Temple today had his third and final day of questioning at a hearing to determine whether six former Gloriavale women were employees, rather than volunteers. Photo: RNZ / Nathan McKinnon
Police are investigating allegations of forced labour, slavery and servitude at the Gloriavale Christian community, the Employment Court has heard.
Overseeing Shepherd Howard Temple confirmed the inquiry on his third and final day of questioning at a hearing to determine whether six former Gloriavale women were employees, rather than volunteers.
The leavers claim they were exploited and treated like slaves, working long hours doing food preparation, cooking, cleaning and laundry on the commune's domestic teams.
The case follows similar legal action by three former Gloriavale men found to have been community employees from the age of just six, doing "strenuous, difficult and sometimes dangerous" work on farms and in factories when they were still legally required to be at school.
Temple told the Attorney-General's lawyer Jenny Catran he was aware police were investigating the possibility of forced labour, slavery and servitude inside Gloriavale.
"I don't have a lot of knowledge, a lot of information," he said.
"Police work under a confidentiality clause, they don't disclose a lot of what they're doing and where they are and who they're talking to, to me."
The court heard government agencies had visited Gloriavale more than 300 times since January 2020, including representatives from police, Oranga Tamariki, the Labour Inspectorate, WorkSafe and Charities Services.
When asked whether members were coached on what to say to external investigators, Temple said he could not specifically recall former Shepherd Fervent Stedfast standing up at meal times to tell people to say they were volunteers.
"He would see it that way, that we don't have employees here," he said.
"We don't employ people. We have the Christian Partners, which is a contract in organisation, and anybody outside of that are just volunteer workers, not employees."
Temple said Stedfast would have told members they were not employees for educational reasons during a period of change at the commune.
"Young ones are growing up and coming into places of work and so forth and they would need to have an understanding themselves, because all sorts of accusations have been made against us about slave labour and so on," he said.
He previously told the court he had not told people what to say to external investigators.
Temple said he could not remember any instances of underage workers being told to hide, problematic people being told to keep themselves busy to avoid interviews, or loyalists volunteering for interviews when government agencies visited Gloriavale.
During the men's case, the Employment Court heard evidence about a call to send little girls out of Gloriavale's kitchens when labour inspectors visited in 2021.
Howard Temple told Jenny Catran children under the age of five were not allowed in the kitchen and others had to be supervised.
"So it's quite possible, isn't it, that if there were little girls under that age limit in the kitchen they might be told to leave?" Catran asked.
"Yes," Temple replied.
"Especially if the labour inspectors were walking around?"
"I would say especially if the labour department was there," Temple said.
In July 2021 the Labour Inspectorate concluded there was no employment relationship between the community and its members.
Temple was also questioned about an earlier Gloriavale policy not to take a "brother to law", which meant leaders sought to bring offenders and their victims to a place of repentance and forgiveness, rather than reporting abuse to police.
He told the court Gloriavale now had a policy of reporting offenders to police or Oranga Tamariki.
"If they come to repentance, ask for forgiveness, they will get that but if it is a breaking of the state law they must still go through the state system," he said.
Temple said some members including Shepherd Stephen Standfast were child protection leads in the community, but three had stood down and were yet to be replaced.
"There have been accusations brought against them so they stood down... one has been cleared of any accusations," he said.
At the end of his evidence Howard Temple thanked chief judge Christina Inglis for "putting up with him".
"I have actually enjoyed being here. I have learnt a lot and I've learnt a lot in the last say, three years - an awful lot - and a lot of things I will now work to put into practice that I think will be beneficial to the people in our community," he said.
The hearing resumes on 20 March.