Gym trainer with fear of sweat told to grab towels
A FITNESS instructor with a fear of sweat has won a discrimination claim after a gym colleague asked her to pick up dirty towels from the floor.
Ali Burton had a recognised anxiety disorder that she told her bosses about at her job interview.
But after the 27-year-old refused to collect the sweaty towels, manager Sarah Norman likened her to ‘someone with a milk allergy deciding to work in Costa’, an employment tribunal heard.
Colleague Sean Foord is said to have responded by picking them up with outstretched arms, saying: ‘You can do it like this – it’s good for the deltoids.’
Personal trainer Ms Burton has suffered for many years from Generalised Anxiety Disorder, which makes her fear bodily fluids also including blood.
It can make her upset and emotional and interfere with her sleep.
She said the condition was triggered when duty manager Mr Foord asked her to pick up the towels at the end of a session on May 30, 2019, a few weeks after she had begun work at the Nuffield Health gym in Crawley, West Sussex.
He persisted after she advised him that it was ‘just something I can’t do’, the tribunal heard.
Ms Burton said he told her ‘ we all have to do things that are unpleasant’, and suggested wearing gloves.
‘I felt embarrassed at having to explain and justify my condition,’ she told the tribunal in Croydon, south London. ‘I was trying to say I cannot physically do it.’
She added the incident had led to her being labelled ‘difficult’ – and Ms Norman had said that she ‘ did not understand why she wanted to work in a gym if she was afraid of sweat’.
The tribunal said: ‘Mr Foord should have realised the claimant was trying to convey that she had a medical condition.’ Ms Norman was judged to be ‘out of her depth’. A compensation figure for Ms Burton, who is still employed by the gym, will be awarded at a later date.