A petition is calling on the New South Wales government to change its rules around having marshals in 24 hour gyms.

Under the state’s coronavirus restrictions, gyms have to register their COVID Safety plan and have a COVID marshal on duty at all times. This marshal will be responsible for making sure equipment is cleaned after being used and social distancing is being enforced.

However, an online petition organised by the NSW 24hr Gym Industry argues that having a marshal at all times is “unsustainable” for the more than 500 24-hour independent and franchised gyms in the state.

The petition’s website referenced Fitness Australia’s research which found that the extra staffing required for 24hr gyms “is now costing on average an extra $2000-$5000 per week in wage costs.”

The “Allow NSW Gyms to operate unstaffed” petition was created by Snap Fitness Beecroft franchisee owner Dave McNamara on Thursday, October 1, and already reached its goal of getting 7,500 signatures by October 8. Now the campaign is aiming for 10,000.

McNamara was also the creater of the NSW 24hr Gym Industry website, which has sent letters to the state government in August and October.

McNamara told Business Insider Australia that the gym restrictions don’t just affect gym owners, it affects people who may not be able to access gyms because they don’t operate at all times, such as nurses, firefighters and people in the police force.

He explained that because a lot of 24-hour gym owners aren’t able to afford staff for 24 hours, they have had to reduce their opening hours.

“As a result, we’ve just condensed the number of people that use the gym every 24 hour period into a shorter period,” McNamara said.

“Our gym itself, we’ve seen an over 30% increase in usage during peak times and that is very similar across the board. So it’s now pushing more people in the space and all that does is just increasing the exposure if there was a case.”

What the petition is calling for is the state government to implement the proposal set forward by Fitness Australia.

These include reducing capacity during unstaffed hours to one person per 10 square metres and allowing gyms to have both staffed and unstaffed hours.

It’s also calling for the creation of a ‘three strike’ rule for gymgoers found to have been breaching COVID restrictions during unstaffed hours.

“Together with fitness Australia, we’ve been trying to essentially lobby the government to get them to understand how much of an impact this is having on our industry and on these individual businesses,” McNamara said.

Earlier in October, Fitness Australia CEO Barrie Elvish said in a statement: “Most 24/7 gyms across NSW can no longer afford to operate 24 hours.

“They have been forced to reduce operating hours to ensure they can meet the COVID Marshal requirement. The effect of this is reduced access to safe and secure gyms for people in the community who need to use the gym at odd hours.

“We are calling on the NSW Government to remove the current COVID Marshal requirements for fitness facilities and instead introduce them only during peak times in line with other industries such as hospitality.”

While people with confirmed coronavirus cases have been found to have travelled through pubs and restaurants, there have been coronavirus cases at gyms in NSW as well.

Public health notices have previously been issued for sites including Fitness First in Randwick, Fitness First Carlingford and the City Tattersalls Fitness Centre.

But McNamara argued that more cases have come from hospitality venues than gyms.

“We’re continually compared to the hospitality industry, particularly around pubs, and clubs and restaurants,” McNamara said. “However, if you actually analyse the data over the past three months since we reopened, you see far more cases in terms of community transmission come from those venues than you have from gyms.”

He added that some of the gyms that had coronavirus cases were staffed.

“The staffing is not going to make a difference in terms of whether a COVID case comes into a club or in terms of community transmission,” he said. “It just doesn’t make any sense.”

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