PUMPED! NJ gyms get the green light to re-open on September 1 💪💪🏋️🏋️‍♀️

On Tuesday, a prescient reader emailed me to suggest a blog topic. He wondered what the labor and employment law implications would be if a bunch of athletes refused to play a scheduled game in protest of social/racial injustice.

And then, yesterday, the Milwaukee Bucks players boycotted their game against the Orlando Magic, spawning a wave of protests across the NBA and other professional sports.

(Remind me to ask that reader for tomorrow’s letter numbers.)

I do plan to write about the protests and the L&E implications — not the lottery numbers; those are mine. But, I have a lot to say, and I want to let all of this marinate for at least 24 hours.

In the meantime, I want to shout out and offer big 🙌🙌🙌 for clients and others that operate gyms in the State of New Jersey.

For those of you who don’t know, along with movie theaters, fitness clubs have been some of the hardest hit by COVID-19. With limited exceptions for one-on-one personal training sessions, coronavirus concerns have shut down gyms since March. We’re talking zero revenue, lots of fixed costs, PPP money running out. It’s been a rough six months.

But that changed yesterday.

Matt Arco for NJ Advance Media had the scoop here as Governor Murphy announced that NJ fitness centers could reopen on September 1, 2020, provided that they implement a series of safety measures:

Governor Murphy will sign an executive order soon.

While this is great news for fitness club operators, this does not leave a lot of time to prepare. Fortunately, SHRM has put together an excellent checklist of items to consider for businesses that are reopening and returning employees to the workplace. Among other things to consider:

• Workplace safety,
• Recall procedures,
• Compensation and employee benefits,
• Handbook and policy updates,
• Communications, and
• Business continuity plans

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to dust off my tank top and striped gym shorts.

It’s nearly go time go time!