Ski Hosting Dispute – The Final Word (for now…)

A Balanced View?

There’s been an awful lot of comment, half truths, PR bluff and downright xenophobia concerning the issue of Ski Hosting (or Ski Leading) by UK Tour Ops and Chalet Companies.

It’s dead easy to use the “bloody French” attitude but to generalise the whole country is ridiculous and not at all fair, I know some wonderful French people and it’s a wonderful county – the best skiing, surfing, food and drink for starters… While arguments rage about protectionism, upholding the law, the minimum wage, health and safety, instruction v hosting and qualification details let’s remember that this is a beautiful part of the world with arguably the best ski infrastructure in the world – and with unbelievable snow conditions the last 2 years too!

Briefly – The UK Chalet Operator Le Ski was prosecuted for employing unqualified Ski Hosts. The prosecution was by The French Courts with The French Nation Ski School, L’École du Ski Français, (ESF) a “Civil Party” – they “supported” the action in the point of upholding the law but didn’t “lead” it. The Meribel branch of the ESF was involved apparently but arguments still rage of whether damages or just costs were awarded and if they could withdraw the court action. Back in October 2012 there were discussions between Tour Ops and the ESF around Ski Hosting but obviously nothing got sorted out.

Suffice to say, Le Ski lost the case, were fined €22,500 with €7,500 of that for breaking minimum wage regulations and Ski Hosting in France is currently banned pending an appeal.

Plenty of people do use the Ski Hosting services provided – especially if they’re single skiers or if partners / kids are in ski school etc but not as a substitution for instruction, and the hosts are generally very careful not to instruct and simply show guests around the mountain pointing out the best runs for their abilities and the best places for lunch (ok, probably where they receive a free meal to be fair, just like instructors can do). With the media and internet picking up on this, it’s terrible PR for The ESF and Skiing in France in general.

La Tania, being a much smaller resort than most, and with a lot of small, independent Chalet Operators will surely not be effected as the bigger places with bigger Tour Ops. Surely an owner can ski with friends and guests on their day off for example? – hopefully a resolution to this can be found soon.

The La Tania ESF has a much better reputation than in other places (The ESF has 17,000 instructors across France – some of them British by the way too!) and is a very central part of La Tania, with the large Jardin d’enfants kids area and Magic Carpet in the centre of resort. We spoke to the Director of the La Tania branch of the ESF, Manchu Dugit regarding this and he explained his point of view.

“It’s very difficult for me to influence anything in my position regarding the dispute, in more than 20 years in La Tania I have never sought any conflict and I’m always open to discuss any issues. In the pretty, small and quiet resort of La Tania it is very easy to know everyone and many people come back season after season. The ESF always tries to promote the French Alps in the UK market – The Flash Mob in London for example, which was cancelled after media criticism of the ESF, we hope people won’t change their destination of France for their Ski Holiday.”

“I understand people are not happy and the media are blaming the ESF, as is usual when a problem appears. It was a Judge’s decision on the Law of France, not the ESF and many people will use it as a way of discrediting our label and return the bitterness against us – this was the same as the “Equivalence” dispute with international ski instruction qualifications a few years ago.”

“Our Ski School has to follow the French laws in France as we would follow English laws if we were in England, I hope everyone can recognise the situation we are in and make informed choices”.
Manch Dugit – Directeur de l’école de ski La Tania

Thank you to Manchu for his comments and his willingness to speak about this – there is a deafening silence from National Tourist Offices, Lift Companies and Mairees on the possible harm this could do to the numbers of UK skiers coming to France next Winter – there are around a million UK skiers who go on Ski Holiday, about a third of those choose France (35% choose France, followed by Austria on 27%, Italy 15% and around 5% each from USA/Canada, Switzerland and Andorra).

A few relevant(ish) points…
1. In Scotland you do need a Leaders Qualification to lead on the Mountain (it’s the law!).

2. A key issue may be the “employment” of Ski Hosts for remuneration – Ski Clubs leaders without qualifications can lead people without breaking the law. Where The Ski Club of Great Britain fits in to that with their Rep guiding days is unclear – they are volunteers but do receive as least discounted accommodation and/or passes etc and clients do pay to be members (they do however receive some significant training – but there is no equivalent qualification in France, maybe that’s the main problem).

3. Is an unqualified ski host (who at least knows the area) less safe than skiing on your own in an unfamiliar area?

4. The minimum wage argument is rearing up again – the issue of is transport, accommodation, food and lift pass included in wages or not? Go right in to this and they could tax everyone’s tips too (including instructors gifts from rich Russians!). Let’s not go there…

5. The French Law not being able to distinguish between ski hosting and instruction or mountain guiding is the main problem as I see it. Couldn’t a “Ski Hosting” certification be introduced that would be a compromise for all – having basic leadership, mountain safety / awareness, first aid and communication skills be introduced? Then everyone wins, everyone’s a bit safer and more knowledgeable people are on the mountains.

6. Nowadays ski hosting is always carefully advertised as not being instruction and hosts are careful not to get involved in that. Is it competing with Instruction? There’s no evidence to suggest so and in fact Reps often recommend proper lessons anyway, unlikely that guests will take lessons rather than hosting (of course cost is a massive factor too). If it is in competition then there are many, many ski schools (including UK ones) that this effects too.

No doubt endless discussions will continue and I’m sure I’ve missed some points of view but hopefully this is a more balanced view of the situation. Please can some common sense take over – or everyone loses…

Can we move on now (for the moment), there’s snow out there…
Toffa

ESF PRESS RELEASE 18/02/2013
“ESF has incorrectly been cited as being the organisation for taking the Le Ski to court for its own protectionism. It should be stressed that ESF has not brought the action in the French courts, but the Public Ministry’s (French Administration) did so in pursuing action against Le Ski for non-compliance with French regulations, after a Border Police Patrol Control found them to be contravening French law.

Under Article L.212-1 of the Sport Code in France, it is legal requirement to have a qualification to teach or lead skiing if remuneration is received.

The laws governing sport in France say that it is illegal to ‘teach, lead, guide, animate’ without an appropriate professional qualification. For professionals, and in particular for ESF, security on ski slopes is of paramount importance. Wintersports touring needs to be conducted with maximum security for those being escorted on the slopes with qualified guides/instructors. France recognises the equivalent professional qualifications for instructors and guides from other countries. Any qualified ski instructor and guide is allowed to operate in France and there is cooperation between European Ski Schools, so the qualifications obtained are to reach the European standards terms of certification. Certificates to operate officially are issued directly by the Ministry of Sports.

ESF will not receive any re-numeration as a result of this judgement other than its legal fees being paid for representing them as a “Civil Party” and importantly, ESF has never sought otherwise. The fine required by the Public Ministry to Le Ski is factored upon an infringement of law and missing Social Taxes to be paid on such activity. Contrary to some opinion, there is no financial gain to ESF.

This is not an ESF led court action, but the organisation has rightly shown its support for French law to be upheld and that for those organisations using hosting or other personnel to ‘guide’ such people must possess a valid qualifications to do so.

ESF is committed to ensuring the safety of UK tourists using French resorts for wintersports.
ESF reiterates its commitment to supporting the UK ski industry and will work with UK tour operators in finding workable solutions for lawful guiding on the French ski slopes”.

LE SKI PRESS RELEASE 20/02/2013
“We are disappointed, but not surprised, that the local court have found us to be in breach of the law concerning ski instructing. We are appealing this decision and shall submit our legitimate arguments to the Court of Appeals. In our view, the Albertville ruling is contrary to European Union law. We are frustrated that our guests, who have enjoyed free ski hosting for 30 years, are temporarily unable to benefit from this very popular service.

The ESF head office and ESF Meribel have decided to attach themselves to this case and have been awarded damages by the local court for loss of earnings. A statement released yesterday by the ESF asserts that they stand to make no financial gain from this action. This is misleading. The Albertville court has awarded damages.

The ski hosting service posed no safety threat and to suggest so is disingenuous. The action has been taken against us and the tour operator community on protectionist grounds. Our guests will not ask ESF ski instructors to show them them round our resorts and find the best routes. They will simply have to spend more time looking at their piste maps.”

Nick Morgan
Managing Director

CRYSTAL PRESS RELEASE 20/02/2013
At Crystal, we have never seen social skiing as a replacement for a ski school, as social skiing is where a representative from the holiday company takes guests on familiarisation tours of the slopes, show them good lunch spots and how to avoid the queues.

They do not go on black runs or off piste and stick to gentle slopes, no instruction is given. Our customers travelling to France can rest assured that our teams in resort will be on hand with suggested routes and itineraries, to ensure our customers still get the most out of their holiday with us. And we will certainly continue with our social skiing service in all other countries.

Although this ruling can only be challenged by this tour operator, the other British tour operators are meeting to discuss the next steps.

And from Le Dauphine Newspaper 21/02/2013 (auto translated)
Employees of foreign tour operators will they now be graduates of French ski to accompany clients on the slopes? This is implicitly the Criminal Court Albertville was the first to respond in the affirmative condemning Monday afternoon, the head of a French tour operator to € 15,000 fine.

He was accused of having in Meribel during the winter of 2012, an employee of British employees who have not graduated from ski instruction issued in France, accompanied clients.

In his defense, his lawyer pointed out that the law requires a qualification that does the teaching. But judges albertvillois, whether accompanied or teach the rules of the code of sport must apply in the same way.

In his indictment after which a suspended prison sentence was sought, the Vice Attorney Gwenaëlle Terrieux held the same position pointing “the specific character of a ski area where the risk of accident is always present.”

The defendant was also sentenced to five fines of € 1,500 for employees paid below the minimum wage.

It will pay € 5,000 in damages to the National Union of French ski school and € 4,000 local union of Méribel.

UK and French Press Coverage