PF: Members' data was never compromised

Jason Cole (Lebanon Voice file photo)

As payroll manager at Planet Fitness' corporate offices, Jason Cole had unfettered access to employees benefits packages and payroll information and was termed a "super user" on the company's computer payroll server, but a spokesman for the company sought to assure PF members on Wednesday that the former employee had no access to gym members' financial information.

Pla-Fit, Inc., LLC, the parent company of Planet Fitness, was granted a temporary restraining order on Monday to forbid Cole from sharing any company information he may have garnered during his yearlong employ with the company after the injunctive request for relief was filed early Monday.

The impetus for the requested temporary restraining order specifically stemmed from a July 30 conversation between Cole and PF execs in which the former Lebanon selectman and assistant rescue chief threatened to leak information of an email he mistakenly received he said was "damning" to the company, this just days ahead of the corporation's IPO on the New York Stock Exchange one week ago.

The complaint filed in federal court in Portland said Cole made the threat after learning an associate of his who also worked at the company's corporate offices in Newington, N.H., had been fired.

McCall Gosselin, director of public relations, sought to reassure gym members everywhere that Cole never had any access whatsoever to member info.

"To be clear, Mr. Cole, as payroll manager, did not have access to Planet Fitness members' data at any time," she noted in a statement on Wednesday. "The information in question is limited only to Planet Fitness Corporate information, and the steps taken were out of an abundance of caution to vigorously protect our employees and the Company."

The temporary restraining order, valid for 14 days, orders that Cole not "use, copy, destroy, disseminate, transmit, secret, print, publish, tamper with or alter Planet Fitness' confidential information."

Cole is also ordered to return all property that belongs to the company.

Gosselin also confirmed on Wednesday that Cole's employment with the company had been officially terminated.

It was also confirmed on Wednesday had been served with paperwork relative to the case.

Cole's lawyer, Paul Aronson of Sanford, considered a labor and employment relations specialist, did not return a phone call.

Planet Fitness lawyer Mark Batten of Boston, a specialist in labor and employment law, said on Wednesday he couldn't comment on the case.