
Carys of Llantwit Major, OTHER on Aug. 28, 2011
Satisfaction Rating1/5
I am a level 3 Personal Trainer. I had been working at a branch of Curves for 7 months in total (Curves Cowbridge, 4 Eagle Lane, Cowbridge Vale of Glamorgan, CF71 7AL.) and experienced extremely unprofessional treatment on the hands of my boss Patricia East who owns a total of four franchises of Curves in South Wales, UK. (Cowbridge, Bridgend, Baglan and Porthcawl, which is soon to open), along with other non-fitness related businesses.
I was unfairly dismissed from my job on 29/07/2011 because of the fact that I raised a grievance of bullying that I suffered from two other members of staff. One of whom is a manager of one of her branches of Curves.
She didn't wish to have to deal with my grievance of bullying; therefore, she dismissed me instantly without any prior warning (either verbal or written) or any prior suspension. I had not done anything wrong. I have since sought legal advice and have been informed that this constitutes 'Wrongful Dismissal', and I have a case to take her to a tribunal regarding this, which is being dealt with presently. It also breaches my contract of employment in several ways.
If I had worked there for over a year, I would've been able to claim for 'Unfair Dismissal', and I believe this is another reason why she was unwilling to investigate my claim that I was being bullied, as she knew it would be a lot easier to get rid of me before I had given a year's service, and therefore, wouldn't have as many rights.
Additionally, she sacked a colleague of mine 3 months before me, because she fell pregnant. This former colleague is also taking Patricia East to court over her Discrimination and Unfair Dismissal, and I am appearing as a witness for her.
Another former colleague of mine voluntarily resigned in May 2011 due to the fact that she was also being bullied by the same manager as me, but despite the fact that she had also raised a grievance and several complaints from both staff and Curves members about this particular managers conduct, no investigation had been carried out into this and no disciplinary action had been taken against this manager.
There has been an enormous turnover of staff within the Curves branches that Patricia East owns over the time I have worked there, and I am told by other members of staff that it has been that way ever since she took over.
Colleagues of mine that witnessed the way I have been treated by her are disgusted and no longer have any trust in her. Several of them have since joined working unions to protect themselves, and many of the Curves members I know and worked with have said they will be cancelling their membership as soon as their contracts end, as they too are thoroughly disgusted by the way she has treated her staff. According to members, the gym conditions have deteriorated drastically since she took over the franchise, and I can vouch for the fact that the entire time I worked for Curves, there was frequently no drinking water available to members and no paper towels or toilet paper available in the toilets. We were frequently left with no cleaning products to use to maintain the place and broken equipment which she failed to arrange to fix for long periods of time. Her main focus the whole time I worked there was on sales and marketing and never on customer service.
In my opinion, Curves is such a wonderful concept that I feel she is giving the company a very bad reputation.