The COVID 19 pandemic has left personal trainers at Virgin Active at loggerheads with their company over the monthly rental for April.
The trainers believe that closed gyms means no income, leaving them unable to pay their rental fees as per the contract with Virgin Active.
Sunday World can reveal that the personal trainers attached to Richard Branson’s Gym, created a petition in which they are demanding that the company freeze their contracts for the month of to allow them a rebate as a result of clients not paying them.
The petition started by Kisrty Marshall, had already garnered 750 supporters on Tuesday, and in it, the trainers decry Virgin Active’s slow response to the pandemic indicating that the company took long to respond to the virus in order to protect their health.
Instead, they said the company offered its members, a deal which will see them have their memberships frozen and their debit orders stopped until the duration of the the virus.
But they said the company was not as equally caring towards them, as it only suggested that they pay half rental, but did not offer to freeze their contracts.
“In response to Virgin Actives offer of a rental reduction due to the current COVID-19 worldwide epidemic. We as a club feel that our health and safety and livelihoods are hugely compromised. We all face a time that is unpredictable, unknown and has been unforeseen. As many places go into lockdown, into survival mode – we are in the early stages and are yet to know how this will affect us or even how much longer our clubs will remain open. What has taken place this week has been drastic – we all are going to default on Aprils rental (even with your offer in place). Our business cannot survive with the precautionary measures currently in place. By keeping our gyms open we are all compromising the health of ourselves, families and our clients,” reads the petition.
The trainers also said they had been advised by Virgin Active to consider training their clients in their personal spaces to augment their income during the pandemic crisis, but they said the advise was proving to be unpractical, as their clients were refusing to consider such an option.
“We have taken your ‘think out the box’ advice and for most of us this has been(sic) to move out and away from the gym and provide training to our clients in their homes or outdoor areas. Or many have had clients cancel until such time as all of this ends,” they said.
As a result of this impasse, the trainers said they were requesting that they be given the option to ‘FREEZE’ their contracts from 1 April 2020 at no cost to the trainer, as Virgin Active has already offered to all members, until such time that the government advises; and that trainers who wish to terminate the contract, be allowed to do so with immediate effect without notice.
One of the trainers who supported the petition, said they were not fighting with Virgin Active, but merely wanted to get the company to listen to their requests.
It’s not clear if Virgin Active has responded to these demands by their trainers.
Virgin Active is yet to respond.
