Posted By Ian Blenkharn Why are the staff there? Do they have any purpose? If they do would that include supervision of the gym and its users? Surely yes. I will not comment about teh Duty of Care, but to ensure business success in the competetive gym world you need to look after the punters. Fail to do so and those who can walk away will walk all the way to the competitors gym down the road. If the staff don't intervene, what else do they do? Stand and watch? Wait until an accident has happened? Or perhaps write a note about their observations and disappear off to file that somewhere safe? If you translate this from a gym to a swimming pool, would you expect the staff there to see someone struggle or in some way place themselves or others at risk, but do nothing about it? If they know its dangerous, and do nothing, I guess the individual and the company are together heading for trouble

Posted By CFT David You ask about legal obligation. In this instance there would be a general duty of care to request this member to use equipment in the way it which it has been designed to be used, and in the correct manner that he has been instructed to use it. Failure to do so after a friendly word of caution would likely result in his membership being terminated 9for his own good). This has happened in a gym in one of our properties with some 1500 members; it is incredibly isolated however. Any potential claim against the gym operators would need to prove negligence and one could argue that they are neglecting to care for this user correctly; how then do they do that? Ask him to use the equipment correctly or leave (oh, and keep a documented record).. CFT

Posted By C. Wright Presumably the member has had an induction in which they had been given tutelage for the correct usage of the equipment, so apart from the duty of care there is also the moral duty to remind the member of the safe use of the equipment, a lot of people cant take it all in on the first time of seeing some of the quite technical exercise kit in some gyms, so to prevent injury a little reminder is sometimes needed. the staff also have a duty to their employer to ensure the equipment is used correctly to prevent loss of members due to injury as well as potential damage to the fixtures and fittings of the gym