Sports centres, gyms request government support as they remain closed

AMMAN — Sports centres and gyms, classified as places of gathering, were among the first places to shut down since the novel coronavirus began to impact the Kingdom in mid-March and have been closed since, according to a Jordan Labour Watch (JLW) statement.

The statement, issued on Sunday, stated that the sports sector in the Kingdom includes 24,000 workers, citing figures from the Jordan Olympic Committee (JOC).

The workforce in the sector is distributed over different entities; such as the 45 national sports associations that employ 476 workers, the 419 gyms that employ 5,000 people and the 1,142 sports centres that employ 8,522 people, the statement said, adding that there are also 520 sports academies in Jordan employing 2,657 workers.

In the sector, there are 5,114 trainers and 2,109 players of different sports, the statement added.

In a discussion with the JLW, affiliated with the Phenix Centre for Economics & Informatics Studies, JOC Secretary General Nasser Majali said that several committees have been formed to contact the concerned institutions and follow up on the conditions in the sector, according to the statement.

The committees will attempt to deflect the crisis in the sports sector, Majali told the JLW, noting that the more the closure continues, the more the owners of and workers at those gyms and sports centres will suffer financial losses.

“A large number of workers in the sports sector are not subscribed to the Social Security Corporation nor do they have social protection, with no information or statistics available on workers subscribed to social insurance, in spite of their large numbers,” the statement said.

Various workers in gyms and sports centres reported to the labour watch their struggle with salaries and social protection, and owners reported the losses they suffered and inability to pay salaries, having fallen in debt.

The fitness sector has demanded exemptions from registration and renewal of licence fees for 2020, in addition to compensation for impacted segments, means to receive banking loans with zero interest rates and exemption from income and sales taxes, the statement concluded.