![]() “In our clubs that we have reopened, we have welcomed back close to 100% of our teams.”īut that same morning, Equinox’s executive chair Harvey Spevak announced that the company was furloughing some instructors and other employees who have not returned to work, including the DC instructor and Davis. ![]() No audition is required,” she wrote in an emailed statement to BuzzFeed News last Thursday. “After 8 weeks we simply rehire an employee who goes inactive in payroll. Liz Levitan, a spokesperson for Equinox, said the DC employee had received inaccurate information. Instead, she said she believes no instructor should be considered “inactive” if they don’t immediately return because of the pandemic. “I am really leery about going inactive and being kicked off the payroll, and they’re already kind of being sketchy about it,” she said. The DC instructor was told that if she didn’t come back to teach within two months of her location reopening, she would be considered an inactive employee and be required to reaudition for her role. “When ‘You’re going to be be paid 75% of your normal rate until Equinox gets back on its feet,’ I was kinda like, What the fuck, Equinox?” I'm obviously not going to do that,” she said. ![]() ![]() “Everyone's kind of loosened up a bit, but I don't think that means that I can go into a sweaty, hot environment where, you know, part of my job is like touching people. The instructor now lives in DC, and when she was asked to come back to work she said she wasn’t comfortable. That comes out to what, $9 an hour? Now in essence I'm under minimum wage.” (Minimum wage in California, where Davis works, is $12 per hour, but she is paid on a per-class basis and her prep work isn’t accounted for.)Īnother Equinox instructor who has worked in both New York and Washington, DC, gyms, who asked to remain anonymous to protect her privacy, put it simply: “I honestly think it's ridiculous. “Now I'm working for $45 for five hours of work. What?” Davis said during a recent interview with BuzzFeed News. “Everybody was like, Okay, record scratch. The messages show an overwhelming nervousness and frustration from instructors being asked to return to work before they feel safe - and to do so not only without hazard pay, but for a reduced wage. Instructors have also been asked to help clean the group fitness studios after classes, without additional pay, as part of an effort to more frequently deep-clean the studios, according to company emails shared with BuzzFeed News.īuzzFeed News interviewed three instructors based in California and Washington, DC, and reviewed nearly two dozen emails, which include ones from instructors sent to Equinox management raising their concerns as well as company responses and announcements, and Facebook conversations between instructors. As gyms reopen, he said, "if the virus actually ends up being still prevalent and we're not aware of who has it, who doesn’t have it, we worry about the safety of both the employees of the gym and the customers.”īut despite the risk, Equinox is asking its group fitness instructors to come back to the gym and teach classes at a discounted rate, keeping the teachers at their 75% pay, rather than restoring their pre-COVID-19 rates. Redlener said that without sufficient testing and contract tracing, gyms won't be safe. Now, gyms in the US are beginning to reopen despite rising COVID-19 cases nationally, meaning group fitness instructors like Davis are facing the prospect of teaching classes indoors, to sweating, panting students - many of whom, instructors like Davis say, aren’t bothering to wear masks.Ĭolumbia University health policy professor Irwin Redlener said during an interview with BuzzFeed News earlier this spring that even if gyms spaced out equipment, there would still be a lot of close contact between members and staff, which could spread the virus further. When the gyms closed, Equinox paid Davis 75% of what she’d been making while teaching. Before the coronavirus outbreak hit, she was being paid $60 a class. When Monica Davis, a Southern California barre and cardio class instructor, teaches a group fitness class, it takes her about an hour to commute to the gym, an hour to put together a playlist, another hour to plan the class itself, an hour to teach it, and another hour to commute back home.ĭavis works for Equinox, an international chain of high-end gyms with more than 80 locations across the US, Canada, and the UK.
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