ARISE Church accepts interns were employees

ARISE Church has agreed to pay $173,869.56 in arrears to four former interns after a Labour Inspectorate investigation found they were employees, not volunteers. The church has accepted that the way parts of its internship programme operated meant minimum employment standards were breached. The agreement is recorded in a consent determination from the Employment Relations Authority (ERA).

The money will be distributed to the four by the Labour Inspectorate. ARISE has also apologised, saying it deeply regretted that the interns placed their trust in a church community and experienced "hurt and disappointment". The church's former founding pastor, John Cameron, has separately accepted he was a person involved in the breaches and has apologised.

It matters well beyond one church. Many charities, faith groups and community organisations rely on people who give their time for a cause. This case tests where that giving stops and where employment begins.

The record

The Labour Inspectorate began investigating in 2022 after receiving a complaint about the internship programme. That same year, former interns publicly alleged they were overworked and taken advantage of in the church's Ministry School. An external review later heard "countless stories" of exhaustion, burnout and mental and physical breakdowns among students.

The controversy prompted a series of reviews into ARISE. Cameron resigned from his leadership role in May 2022.

The Inspectorate says it looked at the actual arrangements for people in the programme to work out the real nature of the relationship with the church. In its words, the relationship with the four former interns "was one of employment". In other words, the label of "intern" or "volunteer" did not decide the matter. What happened in practice did.

Both ARISE and Cameron have accepted that penalties are appropriate. The ERA will now set the amounts.

The other side

ARISE has not fought the finding. It accepted the interns were employees and agreed to pay, and it apologised publicly. A fair reading is that the church chose to settle and acknowledge the breaches rather than contest them, which is what the process is designed to encourage.

Cameron has also accepted his involvement and apologised to the interns.

There is a wider point in the church's favour too. The Inspectorate itself says internship and volunteer programmes "can provide valuable opportunities". The line between a committed volunteer and an employee can be hard to see from inside a community where people join out of belief rather than for money. The Inspectorate's warning is that good intentions do not remove the obligation to check.

What happens next

The ERA will decide the penalty amounts for ARISE and, once its consent determination is issued, for Cameron. The case stays before the authority until then.

Watch for whether the penalties are made public in full, and whether the ERA says anything about how the arrangements worked. Other organisations that use interns, volunteers or trainees should also note the Inspectorate's advice: review such arrangements regularly to make sure workers receive their minimum entitlements.