Where We Stand
Over the past year, Saints & Stars has been the subject of several investigations and legal proceedings following serious allegations concerning former cleaners who worked at our clubs. We understand why these allegations caused concern among our employees, members and the wider community. They deserved to be investigated thoroughly. Several investigations and legal proceedings have since provided greater clarity about what happened.
Public Prosecution Service: No Labour Exploitation
On 27 October 2025, the Dutch Public Prosecution Service concluded its investigation into alleged labour exploitation. This was an important finding. Allegations of labour exploitation and human trafficking are extremely serious and should always be properly investigated. At the same time, this outcome does not mean that everything within Saints & Stars was handled correctly. During a period of rapid growth, shortcomings occurred in the way some people working for Saints & Stars were engaged, documented and supervised. We take responsibility for those shortcomings.
Civil Court Ruling
On 16 December 2025, the Dutch Subdistrict Court ruled in a civil employment case brought by five former cleaners.
The court found shortcomings in the way their employment relationships were terminated and awarded compensation including holiday pay, statutory transition allowances and compensation relating to the termination of their employment and inappropriate WhatsApp communications by the former head of cleaning.
The court did not uphold several of the most serious allegations that had been made.
The independent investigation subsequently commissioned by Saints & Stars also concluded that several serious allegations could not be substantiated, including allegations of modern slavery, confiscation of passports and forced 16-hour working days without breaks.
These findings matter. But they do not mean that everything went right. It did not. Our responsibility is therefore twofold: to correct serious allegations when they are not supported by the facts, while being equally open about the things that did go wrong. That is the approach Saints & Stars is taking today.
Learnings & improving
Saints & Stars believes that everyone working at or for our organisation — from cleaners to coaches — should be treated with respect, fairness and dignity. For an organisation built around health, wellbeing and quality, those values cannot apply only to our members. They must apply equally to the people who work in our clubs.
The events of the past year have shown us that our internal systems and controls needed to be stronger. We have therefore taken a number of measures, including strengthening our recruitment and onboarding procedures, improving internal protocols and controls, introducing additional checks on identity, residence status and work permits, and appointing a confidential advisor for employees. The employment relationship with the former person responsible within the cleaning organisation has also been terminated.
But improvement is not achieved by introducing procedures on paper alone. We need to make sure that those procedures are understood, followed, monitored and continuously evaluated throughout our organisation. That is the next step.
Our aim is simple: everyone working at or for Saints & Stars should be able to expect a safe, respectful and professionally organised working environment. We will continue to learn, improve and be transparent about that process.