David Thoong, a former group exercise manager for the fitness chain’s local operations, said he had not been paid since February.
“Altogether, True Fitness owes me about RM10,000,” he told FMT.
Now a freelance fitness instructor, Thoong said the management routinely ignored its workers’ inquiries about their salaries.
He said he resigned from the company in May after having worked for four months without pay.
In his Facebook page, Thoong had written that his official last day of service in True Fitness was June 7, after taking into consideration the one-month notice period.
He previously worked with another fitness chain before joining True Fitness in August last year.
“Though True Fitness offered 35% to 40% less than what I got at my former company, I joined because I believed in growing further in the industry.
“But in the end, this is what I got – four months’ unpaid salary,” Thoong said.
Thoong said he tried to reason with the management but got rude replies from the home office.
In another Facebook posting made yesterday, he also uploaded screenshots of an article in The Straits Times in Singapore, where True Fitness founder and group chief executive Patrick Wee is quoted as saying that the company has US$100 million (RM430 million) in reserves and 1,800 employees across its centres in Singapore, China and Taiwan.
Wee, who did not mention Malaysia, added that the company was making greater expansion plans into the Chinese market.
Another former employee, Ahmad Kamil, said he had not been paid since last January. “All together, it is close to RM15,000. I have a family to feed. How am I going to support my family?”
Now attached to another fitness chain, Ahmad said he had already lodged a complaint with the human resources ministry.
“I lodged a complaint the second month I did not receive my pay. I do not know about the other ex-employees. I hope they do the same, too. Every month, there were always at least a couple of people leaving the company. Now I know why.”
Other workers interviewed said they would be lodging a complaint with the ministry on Tuesday, as today is a public holiday.
FMT had contacted True Fitness Malaysia home office director Coreen Shan for comment and clarification, but is yet to receive any reply.
Wan Fariza Wan Muhamad Zin, who worked in Shan’s department, said the director did not show up for work in the office since last month.
“We had no direct face time with her at the office after that. Then, our office was abruptly shut down on June 10.”
Wan Fariza, who joined the company in February, 2012, also spoke about the delay in the payment of salaries prior to the office being “unceremoniously” shut down.
“When we asked the management what was happening, they always said, ‘Business is running as usual.’ We did not even get any information or notice about the shutdown.”
She urged the company to have a staff meeting to explain its current situation and to give its workers at least a three-month termination notice so they could find other job.
“I’m now into my sixth month of pregnancy. In my present condition, it is hard to get another job,” she said.
The True Fitness chain, established in 2004, has its base in Singapore. It made headlines on Saturday for abruptly shutting down its Malaysian operations, a day after posting a notice on its website about the closure.
“The past few years have proved challenging and, unfortunately, the business is no longer financially viable due to evolving market conditions,” the notice said.
It said it was unable to refund its customers in cash, adding that arrangements had been made with another fitness centre, Chi Fitness, for customers to continue their workout routines. It added that it was planning to make a similar arrangement for its spa customers with a reputable provider.
A day before the Malaysian shutdown, the parent company, True Group, announced that it was unable to sustain True Fitness’s operations in Thailand “due to the challenging market conditions”.
The Thai operations lost about 49 million baht (RM6.13 million) in 2015, it said.