SINGAPORE: True Fitness and True Yoga’s abrupt closure on Friday (Sep 11) morning caught staff and members by surprise, with employees gathering at the group’s headquarters for answers and customers turning up at outlets to confirm the news.
More than 50 employees were seen at the group’s Claymore Hill headquarters from about 1.30pm, entering the office in batches. Staff from the appointed insolvency practitioner, RSM SG Corporate Advisory, were also present.
The mood in the meeting was “tense” because there was no representative from True Fitness to answer questions, said Adrian Pratab, 43, team lead for instructors at Millennia Walk.
“It was just the side of the liquidation company. So I was a bit disappointed because our HR was not around. There were a lot of questions that I wanted to ask HR regarding this matter, and nobody was there,” he said.
At the meeting on Friday, provisional liquidators asked employees to sign a notice of termination of employment with immediate effect, and provided information on how to submit their wage claims.
Project executive Arivinthan Rajanthran, 33, said employees were told that liquidators would try to recover as much as they could to compensate both employees and gym members.
He said he was owed salary for about 10 days of work as well as his notice period, and that employees had been advised to file their salary claims.
STAFF SCRAMBLING FOR ANSWERS
Things began unfolding past 10pm on Thursday, after an ordinary day at work, when staff received messages telling them to return to the gyms to retrieve their belongings because every outlet was closing, said senior personal trainer Mani Jr, 28.
Another message in the early hours of the morning informed employees of the liquidation.
“It was such a mess,” Mr Mani told CNA, adding that it left him “perplexed and confused”.
Mr Mani, who works at the Great World outlet, said trainers earn a commission of S$90 to S$120 (US$70 to US$100) per session on top of their base salary. He is owed both his commission and salary for work done so far in September.
He added that about a month ago, trainers were asked to pause selling packages to new clients. There was no alarm at the time, he said, because they were told this was because the pay structure was being changed to one that would be better for them.
Other plans also appeared to be going ahead, such as the Great World fitness centre’s planned move to Funan shopping mall, he said.
For now, his foremost concern is his clients who are owed personal training sessions, and his colleagues who are in Singapore on work passes.
Mr Pratab similarly lost his job abruptly in 2016, when California Fitness closed all its gyms in Singapore. Over a decade at True Fitness, the Malaysian work pass holder has built his life in Singapore with his wife and child.
“Unfortunately, the way how they informed us is not very nice, very last minute,” he said, adding that there were no warning signs of trouble despite supervisors asking management directly about their future plans at a meeting about a month ago.
“They couldn’t be straightforward and tell us the truth,” he said. “We were a bit disappointed that actually they were about to close, but they didn’t tell us upfront.”
He added that he would have made plans for other employment earlier had he received prior notice.