GBV at Zone Fitness

Does Zone Fitness condone the abuse of their female employees and the breaking of protocols and regulations that's supposed to safeguard their staff and clients during this Pandemic? It would appear they do. A male employee of their Kloof Street Gym became abusive to a female colleague after being told that he wouldn't be allowed to train on the equipment (as per the rules of the organization and the country in the fight against Covid) , and when confronted about his behaviour by another female colleague proceeded to assault that colleague - pushing her up against the wall and punching her in the face, not once, but twice (there is photographic evidence and a doctor's report on this). The man's manager (a woman) happened on the scene after two female colleagues managed to keep him off the young woman, and proceeded to pacify him, and took him elsewhere on the premises. After enquiring whether the young woman was 'OK' she then proceeded to go back to work. The young woman - accompanied by a concerned older man employed as a cleaner went to lay a charge of assault at the Police Station. On enquiring from Zone Fitness the next day about what had transpired the man's manager proceeded to inform the aunt of the young woman (who was standing in for her sister, a single mother) that she wasn't privy to the actual assault, but that she arrived to see the young woman attacking the man with scissors and shouting wildly abusive things. She then proceeded to continuously contradict herself about the manner in which the young woman apparently attacked the man, and what exactly she had shouted. She nay-sayed any suggestion that the man attacked the young woman ('I wasn't there') and when asked about her very apparent injuries, refused to 'entertain this any longer' and concluded the engagement with that - as a friend of the family I was witness to this. The young woman's manager telephonically assured us though, that the company had followed all protocols in an instance where a woman is assaulted at her place of employ. She informed us that the man had been suspended pending a disciplinary hearing in a week's time and to assure the young woman that it was safe for her to come to work. To date, besides a written testimony to the police, the company has no record of the young woman's plight, in her own words. At the man's hearing that she was invited to attend and refused (since she is severely traumatized about the handling of this) but agreed to telephonically respond to questions, of the two the man asked her, one was 'Did I hit you?'. She confirmed that he did. The startling outcome of the disciplinary hearing was that the company then informed the young woman that the man had laid a charge of common assault against her and that he had been moved to another branch. We would later discover that this was Greenpoint, the branch from which he had previously transfered. He also contacted the young woman's manager to ask her to appeal to the young woman for forgiveness, that he would never want to harm her, how they were a family, how he didn't even know what happened, how he was probably provoked, and could they just 'move past it'. In the interim I had gotten a call from their Social Media manager assuring me that they would be doing their utmost to deal with this manifestation of GBV and deal with it seriously. The truth is, to date, Zone Fitness has done nothing about the fact that a young woman in their employ was assaulted by a male colleague for insisting on compliance to the rules of the company and the country during a Pandemic. The perpetrator was moved to Zone Fitness Greenpoint, and the company has moved on. The young woman is appearing in court tomorrow accusing and being accused of common assault. Apparently, twice-punched in the face is not enough evidence of violence I would be concerned, being employed by Zone Fitness or availing myself of their service.

This kind of enabling of violence against women is very dangerous

#GBV #ZoneFitness