PETALING JAYA, June 13 ― Former employees have accused the True Fitness gym chain of failing to pay RM66,000 in commissions before it wound up its operations in Malaysia.

After lodging reports with the Labour Department here, former fitness manager Shahrul Hamiri Shahruddin revealed that commissions of over RM27,000 were owed to seven employees from the Sunway Giza branch.

A document sighted by Malay Mail Online showed RM22,104 was owed to six staff members from the Jaya33 branch, and RM16,488 to five employees from the Subang Jaya branch.

"We have gotten our salaries for last month. We just want to fight for our commissions and also a compensation for being retrenched without notice,” Shahrul said to reporters when met at the Labour Office.

Shahrul said former employees have been unable to get any explanation from the management, which he claimed was not answering their calls.

More than 30 employees comprising 14 personal trainers and about 20 general staff members lodged labour complaints today, he said.

"Even ex-staff who resigned before this have lodged complaints over unpaid commissions today,” he said.

Employees began to see signs of distress at the company since June last year, in the form of late salaries and commission payments.

Managerial staff received their salaries seven days late as lower-level employees were paid first while commissions were paid at half the usual rate, Shahrul said.

But he said they did not expect operations to be wound up so suddenly, saying that superiors had convinced them to stay on and fight for what they were owed.

There were over 100 workers from the three branches in Subang Jaya, Sunway Giza and Jaya33.

Shahrul, who had been a True Fitness employee for over seven years, said they were only informed of the closure via a message on a Whatsapp group chat.

"I had to cancel all my appointments with clients in that morning. Then, I went to the gym, only to find its doors shut,” he said, adding that he was unable to access his personal belongings that were still inside.

Aside from former employees, unhappy customers were also present today.

True Fitness member, Anthony Tan speaks to members of the media outside the Labour Office in Subang Jaya June 13, 2017. ― Picture by Yusof Mat Isa

Anthony Tan, a True Fitness member for the past three years, expressed shocked over the sudden closure as he and his wife had signed up for a lifetime package in February last year for RM16,400.

The lawyer representing the group, Chen Yu Szen, said former True Fitness employees and members will meet this weekend to discuss the next course of action, but said they will be seeking damages.

Established in Singapore, True Fitness had expanded to Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan and China. It announced the closure of its Thai operations on June 9 and, a day later, shuttered its gyms in Malaysia.