Unhealthy lifestyle

Unhealthy lifestyle

A fitness club is a great place to shed those extra pounds. You come in, pay, and get started on building muscles on machines with the help of attentive trainers. However, "Slidstvo.Info" discovered that there is sometimes a dark side to this business that is carefully hidden.  

"Sport Life". It is the largest and most famous chain of fitness clubs in Ukraine. The founder of the "Sport Life" group of companies is a businessman of Russian origin with an American passport, Dmitriy Yekimov. Active advertising, constant promotions, attractive offers - the network of clubs is constantly growing. According to the latest data, there are already thirty-two. There are enough clients, and each one needs attention. For this, "Sport Life" employs qualified staff. However, formally, they... don’t exist.

The internal workings of "Sport Life" were shared with "Slidstvo" by former personal trainers who worked for the network. "In each club, there are slightly more or slightly fewer, but on average, this is about 50-60 people. That’s the total number. Of these people, only five are officially employed," – says one of the former "Sport Life" employees, Oleksandr.

"Based on what I know, my interlocutors say that the situation is identical throughout Ukraine, in all regions, across all clubs in Kyiv, in one way or another," adds Bohdan, another former "Sport Life" trainer.

Why does a large sports network not want to formalize its labor relations with most of its employees? The reason is simple, as an expert explained to us. Money. "The primary goal of not employing workers is to avoid paying taxes, including the Unified Social Contribution and personal income tax," says Svitlana, the chief accountant of a financial company. 

Let’s try to understand. At least 1800 people work across the entire network. According to employees, about 10% are officially employed there. That means over 1600 people work unofficially. According to State Statistics Service data, last year, the average salary in the service sector in Kyiv was about 5000 hryvnias. Even with the most modest estimates, the state loses at least four million hryvnias in taxes 

But that’s only half the problem. This scheme not only avoids tax payments but also allows for greater earnings. In addition to the official fee - for example, for a membership - clubs offer a range of additional services - trainers, masseurs, etc. You cannot pay for these services by card. Payment is taken only in cash. Here’s a receipt they sometimes give customers. It’s impossible to know from it who they’re paying and where their money goes. 

An expert told us: "Receipts are issued in violation of current Ukrainian legislation, as cash settlements in Ukraine are mainly regulated by Law 265 ’On the application of registrars of settlement operations’. According to this law, an enterprise can reflect cash transactions, such as cash receipt, by issuing a revenue cash order if the enterprise sells goods of its production or provides services, or by issuing a fiscal receipt."

Such a receipt and the inability to pay by cashless means give every reason to suspect that the revenues coming to the club’s internal cash register are not officially recorded, which means they remain invisible to the tax service and are not taxed. Employees prefer to keep quiet about the system built within the sports network. After all, unofficial employment means a lack of rights and a threat of dismissal.

"We worked there unofficially, and when salary delays exceeded three months, we couldn’t wait anymore without money, given the attitude towards us from the management, and we were forced to contact law enforcement," Oleksandr says. 

When information about employees’ attempts to protect their basic rights reached the club’s management, employees were called for a conversation and dismissed. "Slidstvo.Info" has an audio recording of this conversation.

- (Tetyana Podryezova, fitness manager assistant at "Sport Life") How are our labor relations with you established?

- (Oleksandr, former "Sport Life" employee) Verbally.

- (Tetyana Podryezova) Verbally?

- (Oleksandr) Yes.

- (Tetyana Podryezova) Well, verbally, I terminate them with you.

- (Oleksandr) Okay, well, then we’ll be finding out in the legal field why our labor relations are verbal and no other way.

The press service of the fitness club refused to comment on the situation. We managed to talk on the phone with the founder of the "Sport Life" group of companies, Dmitriy Yekimov, and here’s what he told us: "We have an on-duty trainer, a sanitary doctor working, those people who are on staff, girls at the reception. But people engaged in entrepreneurial activities on our territory are personal trainers. A person receiving 65% of what they earn cannot be an employee. Right? This is a private entrepreneurship (FOP). It’s an individual entrepreneur who, under contract arrangements, we allow to conduct personal training with our clients."

So, the founder of the "Sport Life" group of companies is confident that all the personal trainers working in his clubs are private entrepreneurs, but neither Oleksandr nor Bohdan were such. Moreover, they did not sign any contracts with the club. "Slidstvo.Info" has a list of "Sport Life" employees. The analysis of the first fifty personal trainers from the list showed that only one is registered as a private entrepreneur.

Information about unpaid taxes, unofficial employment, audio recordings - it would seem, provides all the grounds for conducting a productive investigation by tax and law enforcement agencies. But after the first check, which allegedly revealed violations, the process stalled. Why?

"Slidstvo.info" received a recording where a prosecutor’s office employee explains the likely reason for slowing down the pace of the investigation: "There are higher forces already, and the city prosecutor’s office, which oversees us, we are pawns for them. The General, Pechersk, where their administration is located. They’ve resolved it everywhere across all lines already."

Moreover, according to Oleksandr, they tried to set up a meeting with a representative of "Sport Life" right in the prosecutor’s office - to resolve the matter amicably. Here’s what he shared about that incident: "We go. We enter the deputy’s office, and they tell me that your case is very complicated. You don’t have enough evidence, you won’t be able to prove it. In short, a representative of ’Sport Life’ will arrive now. Let’s see if we can agree."

We asked Dmitriy Yekimov if he knows anything about this incident. The answer was categorical: "If you have such a recording, submit it to the prosecutor’s office and initiate a criminal case."

It is noticeable that the "Sport Life" management does not fear supervisory and law enforcement agencies. There are two options. Either Dmitriy Yekimov does not fully understand what is happening in his clubs, or he is confident that reliable people will always help him avoid problems.

/Oleksandr Humenyuk

Hromadske TV