STA, 27 November 2020 - Hairdressers and fitness clubs say the government is limiting their business to the greatest extent possible during the lockdown while not offering them enough aid to avoid layoffs and bankruptcies. "We are on the verge of collapse," the two sectors said on Friday, urging dialogue with decision-makers and reopening their businesses.
Both sectors say the aid provided in the stimulus packages so far does not suffice for them to survive, calling for a different approach suited to their specifics.
David Cukjati, the director of Lassana, a leading chain of hair salons in Slovenia, said "the subsidy for furloughed workers covers 80% of the pay and is unreasonably lower than the one for sole proprietors".
Just like in the first wave, they would like to be exempt from paying health insurance contributions and electricity bills, he told the magazine Frizer (Hairdresser).
The sector also expects the coverage of at least part of fixed costs for the period when they are closed if the net loss of revenue amounts to 10%.
Cukjati believes a 40% drop in annual revenue to qualify for fixed costs subsides as set down in the sixth stimulus package is much too high, saying a fair figure would be 20%.
The hairdressers - apart from Cukjati several other representatives spoke to Frizer - also say decision-makers did not consult them a single time during the epidemic or tried to find common solutions to allow them to work.
They stress they cannot offer their services online, and accuse the government of encouraging grey market, which is also less safe and against which the sector had fought for years.
Similarly, fitness clubs - there are over 150 fitness club owners in Slovenia - say that "companies in our sector have already used all their internal reserves".
Fitness clubs largely operate without having permanent employees as they hire freelanced trainers, so pegging aid to the sector to the number of permanent employees is "completely unsuitable", reads today's release from the Chamber of Commerce and Industry's (GZS) new section for fitness, recreation and regeneration.
FURS data show there are almost 4,000 self-employed trainers in Slovenia who provide services worth EUR 78 million, with one trainer working in several gyms in a day.
Fitness centres thus want decision-makers to help them weather the crisis and start thinking about easing lockdown for them as soon as possible.
The release also stresses the great importance of "having a strong sector of fitness, recreation and regeneration in the period after the pandemic".
The hairdressers point out that instead of the government entering a dialogue with the services sector, the sector is now faced with layoffs and bankruptcies.
"If we had taken foreign countries as an example, we would have services provided in a safe manner instead of businesses being closed.”
