UPDATED::Upstate religious cult allegedly beats kids, forces them into labor

UPDATE::  Twelve Tribes community pushes back against labor violation accusations

The Twelve Tribes community near Albany is pushing back against labor violations involving children.

Members say there weren't 12 people, let alone 12 children at the Common Sense packaging facility when the Department of Labor visited this week, so they don't know how they received 12 violations.

Investigators visited the community after "Inside Edition" aired hidden camera footage showing alleged child labor.

UPDATE::  Officials probe commune after illegal child labor claims

Video purporting to show a 6-year-old old boy picking potatoes at a farm run by a religious community and other children working at the group’s high-end cosmetics factory has prompted an investigation by New York state labor officials.

The state’s labor commissioner said the department will investigate the Twelve Tribes community in Cambridge, New York, after the TV show “Inside Edition” aired hidden camera footage appearing to show child labor. The show said Common Sense Farm packages cosmetics for companies like Acure and Savannah Bee that are sold by major retailers.

A former worker wore a hidden camera and pretended to go back to work in the commune near the Vermont border. She was filmed talking to children in the factory who said they were 11 and 10. A producer filmed what the syndicated show said was a 6-year-old boy struggling to push a wheelbarrow and pick potatoes.

Twelve Tribes/Yellow Deli seems to be making some waves,,,

The factory, in rural Cambridge — a small town an hour northeast of Albany — is owned and run by a controversial international religious cult called Twelve Tribes.

The cult has been fined by New York authorities at least twice before, in 2001 and 2006, over child labor-law violations.

Its charismatic octogenarian leader, Gene Spriggs, preaches a home-spun fundamentalism that promotes corporal punishment, racism, homophobia, and a return to 1st century Christian values.

“They preach peace and love. But there’s another side of these people they don’t want you to see,” says a promo for the “Inside Edition” report, which airs 7 p.m. Frida
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Ex-member Sarah Williams, 34, “rejoined” the group to record hidden-camera footage of children, ages 9 and 10, working an assembly line for the factory, which packages soaps for major brands, including Savannah Bee and Acure.

Williams recorded a girl who said she was 11 pulling small white boxes from a larger box and lining them up on a conveyor belt.

Upstate religious cult allegedly beats kids, forces them into labor

See also::  
Twelve Tribes is subject of upcoming investigative podcast

Yellow Deli's Twelve Tribes back in the spotlight as subject of new podcast, documentary