GoodLife Fitness cuts 480 jobs

Citing the lingering impact of pandemic restrictions, GoodLife Fitness lets go of hundreds of fitness instructors across Canada

Photo: The GoodLife Fit4Less and Home Office facility at 710 Proudfoot Lane

LONDON-BASED GOODLIFE FITNESS has laid off 480 fitness instructors across Canada, citing the impact of restrictions during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The company “made the difficult decision” to end the employment of staff at 189 clubs across the country, says GoodLife COO, Jason Sheridan, in a released statement.

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Sheridan says 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.”

The company adds that the vast majority of the impacted employees have not worked for the majority of the pandemic.

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In the wake of the announcement, the company is facing online criticism after it was revealed the layoffs were sent via email and that a virtual career fair is scheduled for March 9.

In response, GoodLife has stated that email was used to ensure instructors were informed simultaneously, and the notifications were sent “in accordance with the terms of their employment contracts and all applicable employment legislation.”

As for the career fair, the company says as it continues on the road to pandemic recovery, it currently has hundreds of other positions it is recruiting for.