A former member of Gloriavale on the West Coast says he was hit with a shovel handle and denied food for not working fast enough as a six-year-old.
The testimony was revealed as part of an employment court case examining whether those at the secretive community are volunteers or not.
Hosea Courage is one of three former Gloriavale members giving evidence as part of the case, which is challenging the findings of a Labour Inspectorate investigation.
The Inspectorate concluded last year that community members could not be classed as employees, as the residents signed paperwork acknowledging this and had independent legal advice.
The review by the Inspectorate was ordered by then Workplace Relations Minister Andrew Little, who told Newshub at the time it appeared people at Gloriavale were being exploited.
Courage, who left Gloriavale in October 2019, described Gloriavale as a "terrible place" of religious enslavement where the residents didn't have control of their own lives.
He described working as a boy aged six gathering moss and sorting it in the community's processing plant.
"When I didn't collect the moss fast enough, I was not allowed to eat as a punishment," he said. "If you don't work, you don't eat."
On other occasions, he said he was hit on his backside with a shovel handle, leaving him with bruises.
When he turned 16 years old he was asked to sign a Partnership Agreement. He said he signed the document but didn't feel like he had a choice, saying it was expected and if you didn't, you'd be disobeying God.
Lawyer for the former residents, Brian Henry, said there was an "extreme degree of control" over the residents of Gloriavale by the leaders - or Shepherds - who are the "law makers".
Henry described the so-called independent legal advice as a "sham" and "total fiction" where people who had no understanding of the outside world were given information by a lawyer paid for and selected by Gloriavale's leaders.
"How do you give legal advice to someone who has no clue about the outside world? Their legal advice is a cloak of respectability to what is an absolute sham," he told the hearing.
Another former resident, Daniel Pilgrim, said to work and live at Gloriavale you had to sign the documents and if you didn't, you could be cut off from your family.
"In Gloriavale, there was a mentality that you owed everything to the system."
The case before the Employment Court's Chief Judge Christina Inglis is expected to last five days. Lawyers for Gloriavale are also expected to call witnesses.
A page has been set up to help raise funds for the former members of Gloriavale who are taking the legal action.
