GoodLife Fitness has let go of nearly 500 employees across Canada due to COVID-19 restrictions cutting down on business, according to a statement from the company.
Jason Sheridan, chief operating officer at GoodLife Fitness, said in a statement to CTVNews.ca Sunday that the company “recently made the difficult decision to end the employment of 480 group fitness instructors from 189 clubs across the country.
“Unfortunately, due to COVID restrictions on group activities, most of these instructors have not worked for the majority of the pandemic.”
Sheridan said that while GoodLife is recovering, the pandemic has been hard on fitness-related activities, particularly those that require indoor group work.
“Because of this, we will not be able to expand our group fitness schedules in the near future to the point of bringing back additional instructors,” he said in the statement.
“This decision in no way reflects the passion and dedication of these instructors and has been made in accordance with the terms of their employment contracts and all applicable employment legislation.”
Instructors were notified by email that they were let go.
The statement added that they would support the fitness instructors as they searched for new jobs, “including various open positions at GoodLife.”
On March 2, the company posted a tweet calling for people to sign up for a “Personal Training National Career Webinar and learn all about a career in Personal Training at GoodLife Fitness.”
According to Sheridan, the company offers nearly 4,500 group fitness classes a week.
