18 May 2020
Fitness industry welcomes extension to Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme
BY Tom Walker
Industry body ukactive has 'cautiously welcomed' the government's decision to extend the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme until October.
Reacting to the announcement made on 12 May – that the government will continue to pay furloughed workers 80 per cent of their current salary until the end of October – ukactive CEO Huw Edwards said: "We welcome the news with caution.
“With a significant portion of the 189,000 people our sector employs currently furloughed, the retention of the 80 per cent salary level within the scheme is important for our workforce and this is something ukactive has called for as part of the reopening strategy for our sector.
“However, there remain serious concerns that businesses will be expected to contribute to the salary of furloughed staff from August, even if facilities are required to remain closed.
“With no income for the past two months and no confirmation of when our sector will be allowed to reopen, this will place a huge burden on operators – a situation which could lead to large-scale job losses as many businesses will be unable to pay staff while they remain closed.
“We urge the Chancellor to provide clarity as soon as possible and to consider exemptions for those sectors which are mandated by the government to remain closed."
Meanwhile, one of the UK's largest operators, GLL, said it was pleased the scheme had been continued, adding that it would help operators reopen their facilities in a gradual, safe manner, without the need to cut jobs.
Mark Sesnan, CEO of GLL said: “The extension is fantastic news for our business and the leisure industry as a whole.
"We're hoping to be in a position to start re-opening the leisure facilities (as soon as the government will allow it) and we're planning the adaptations that we could make to our centres.
"These could include moving exercises classes into the open air, reducing the amount of equipment within gym areas – or relocating it into sports halls – introducing an advance booking system that limits the number of visitors and closing early to allow for daily deep cleaning.
"However, in practice this is likely to mean reducing our operational capacity significantly, in order to accommodate social distancing, to ensure staff safety and to allow for enhanced cleaning regimes.
“Because of this, we won’t be able to bring all our staff back to work initially and without the extension to the furlough scheme we might have had to consider redundancies.
"The ability to bring staff back in a phased way, with some working part-time, but still have a proportion of their wages covered by the scheme, will be hugely helpful and give us the increased flexibility we need in order to gradually return to our normal working levels."
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