Gloriavale back in court to challenge Westland Dairy’s decision to stop collecting its milk

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 a number 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 that 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 submitted that 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 with the terms of the contract, or if it was not in its best interest to collect the milk, but there was no evidence to suggest this was the case, Raymond told the court.

Canaan Farming Dairy Ltd employed 15 staff, all of whom were adults, which was supported by affidavits provided to the court, he submitted.

Westland had “completely overplayed the issues” and there were grounds to suggest they were being unreasonable, Raymond said, as their evidence of any wrongdoing within the farms was “pathetic” and had a “devastating, if not fatal blow for Gloriavale.”

Canaan Farming Dairy has a herd of about 500 cows it milks through the winter which would be affected by Westland Dairy’s refusal to take their milk.

The contract between Canaan and Westland states that all of Canaan’s milk will be collected by Westland for a 10-year period from the nominated start date, providing the terms are complied with throughout.

In announcing an “indefinite” suspension of milk collection in June, Westland Dairy Company chief executive Richard Wyeth said collection would only resume if Gloriavale demonstrated it could “adhere to the standards and values of not only Westland, but the standards and values of the wider New Zealand community as well as our customers”.

Trying to lump the farms in with Gloriavale’s other businesses and tar them with the same brush was completely wrong, Raymond submitted.

“The judgement simply does not involve Canaan.”

The hearing is continuing.