Personal trainers at GoodLife Fitness in Toronto, Ajax, and Peterborough have voted to ratify what's billed as the first union contract in the North American fitness industry.
In 2016, nearly 650 trainers in the three cities formed the first fitness professionals' union in North America.
The Workers United Canada Council says they reached an agreement after more than a year of negotiations.
GoodLife President and COO Jane Riddell says the agreement won't have any impact on membership fees or any other costs to members.
"We look forward to ongoing productive discussions with all of our people around how we can continue to work together to ensure GoodLife remains a great place to work," Riddell said in a statement.
Danesh Hanbury, a personal trainer and bargaining team member from Toronto's Yonge and Dundas club, said they moved forward on major issues of paid sick days, unpaid work and what he called "favouritism by management."
Adrie Naylor with WUCC tells Moore in the Morning one of the biggest issues was duties trainers weren't being paid for including contacting clients, planning for training sessions and filing reports for management. They have reached a deal to be compensated for that work.
In addition to approving their first contract, the members approved a plan that "charts a path to build collective power for the future"
"We were able to push GoodLife to make company-wide changes even though only 25 per cent of GoodLife personal trainers are currently unionized," said Mark Cleary, a personal trainer and bargaining team member from the Peterborough Portage Place club.
with files from Siobhan Morris and the Canadian Press