Self employed PT - GYM withholding money

PTSam

Hello!

I'm hoping you are able to help with my current situation. I am a self employed personal trainer and I mainly work out of a local gym. Being self employed my clients enter into a contract with myself and not the gym. Currently I pay the gym a flat rate of £6 for every session carried out at their premises for use of their facilities. This money is paid at the end of each month.

They are now implementing a system where my clients pay the gym for my services and then the gym pay me my share. They will however only pay me once the session has been carried out, so if I sell a 12 week package for £300, I will only receive £19 a week (£25 for a session less £6 rent) from the gym rather than the full amount upfront.

My belief is that as I am self employed and the contract is between myself and my client that they shouldn't be able to withhold my money like this. This system will still be implemented for my clients which are not a member of the gym and only train there during our sessions together.

Any thoughts on if this is legal?

Thanks
Sam

nicechap

PTSam wrote: »

Hello!

I'm hoping you are able to help with my current situation. I am a self employed personal trainer and I mainly work out of a local gym. Being self employed my clients enter into a contract with myself and not the gym. Currently I pay the gym a flat rate of £6 for every session carried out at their premises for use of their facilities. This money is paid at the end of each month.

They are now implementing a system where my clients pay the gym for my services and then the gym pay me my share. They will however only pay me once the session has been carried out, so if I sell a 12 week package for £300, I will only receive £19 a week (£25 for a session less £6 rent) from the gym rather than the full amount upfront.

My belief is that as I am self employed and the contract is between myself and my client that they shouldn't be able to withhold my money like this. This system will still be implemented for my clients which are not a member of the gym and only train there during our sessions together.

Any thoughts on if this is legal?

Thanks
Sam

From the sound of it, this is a business to business arrangement so is a matter of negotiation between the two of you. What does your existing commercial contract say about changes? Do you have any leverage say by using another gym for your classes ?

Les79

Well, one thing to bear in mind that the GYM is under no obligation to allow you to operate on their premises. More so if you are considered "self employed". So, irrespective of whom the contract is with (you and customer), they can literally just jib you off.


What MAY NOT be legal is somewhat unrelated to your query; you see, UBER and some other companies have just lost a legal battle over whether "self employed" people are actually considered "employees". In that respect, you may actually be an "employee" of the company and not merely "self employed"; more so with receiving payments from them. As long as you get at least NMW and maybe holiday benefits etc then all is well in the world, though you may want to research the UBER case yourself for more info.


I think the "self employed" concept works well for some people, like yourself, but it does throw up situations like this where employers can impose new rules willy nilly and effectively take advantage of people.