Hobbs vs The Salvation Army - Exposing a Cult
Recently, a former colleague of mine, Peter Hobbs, shared that he had gone to the Fair Work Commission to challenge the established convention that Salvation Army Officers are not “employees.” Like me, Peter was until recently an Officer himself, and his challenge called into question the nature of the relationship between The Salvation Army and its Officers and could have had ramifications across the world had his challenge succeeded. It didn’t. I’m not surprised either. In reality, the Fair Work Commission deals with relationships between employees and employers and so it is the right place to establish the question “is and Officer really an employee or not?” They determined that they are not, but that is not the end of the questions that arise from Hobbs’ case. Critical to the relationship is the Officer’s Undertakings; a document that cadets sign before they become Officers. The first point of the Undertakings states this: 1. In response to the call of God, I give myse