Now Three Separate French Legal Actions Against British Ski Companies and Clubs

There are now three separate court cases due to be heard in the French Alps over the next five months as the French authorities endeavour to comprehensively clamp down on what have until now been 'grey areas' in what is and is not permitted on French ski slopes.

The latest case concerns the Ski Club of Great Britain which operates a kind of ski hosting service at ski resorts around the world, including in France. Unpaid volunteer Club 'Leaders' taker groups of skiers out on orientation tours of the resorts where they are based. Unlike with most tour operator ski hosting services, this can include black runs and frequently off piste slopes. The Ski Club say they have legal advice that this does meet French laws, but a Ski Club leader was stopped on the slopes of Val d'Isere earlier this month and a court will hold an enquiry in September.

The case is similar to that faced by tour operator Le Ski, which is backed by many other British tour operators including the UK's largest, following the arrest of its staff for 'ski hosting' during the winter of 2012-13. That case is due back in the courts next month. Ski hosts perform a similar role, with similar restrictions, to the Ski Club's leaders but they are paid employees of the tour operators …although they may not be specifically paid to ski host. The Ski Club's leaders receive help with accommodation, lift passes and travel but are not actually paid cash, which may, or may not, prove to be the crucial difference.

The third case, with a verdict due in June, is on the separate issue of teaching in France without the qualifications required by the French, but with high internationally recognised qualifications which the accused, Simon Butler, believes gives him the right to teach under European employment equality laws.

So by the start of next season we may know where Brits stand in terms of hosting, leading or teaching in France – or it may still be rumbling on.

As previously reported, the French embassy have issued a statement stressing that they love the Brits, the largest foreign group at several of their leading resorts, and that the legal crackdown is not due to a populist anti-British agenda, but to improve safety on the slopes. The laws, they say, apply equally to citizens of other nations and indeed French ski companies.

The issues raised in the legal cases have not caused problems in any other skiing nation J2ski is aware of.

The SCGB guiding and ski hosting are quite different.
Calling the SCGB service hosting isn't right, nor is saying they don't tackle difficult slopes. They regularly spend the whole day off piste.
If there is a concern with safety, it is with SCGB reps, while well trained and experienced, taking people off piste where they have little local knowledge.
Ski hosting on blues and reds is a completely different thing, much lower risk and doesn't require hosts to be instructors.

I'd be delighted to be corrected, but - despite the pronouncements from the SCGB that the LeSki case doesn't apply to them (as they are "volunteers") - it does appear that they're sailing pretty close to the wind.

andyhull wrote:Calling the SCGB service hosting isn't right

Possibly, but it's no more right to refer to it as "guiding" either.

As far as I'm aware, the Ski Club's Reps (sorry, "Leaders") will have been on a training course for a couple of weeks but are not required to have any recognised qualifications.

So, I'd have thought...

andyhull wrote:... difficult slopes. They regularly spend the whole day off piste.

...might put them in a bit of a spot, although (again AFAIAA) they no longer go off-piste officially.

andyhull wrote:well trained and experienced, taking people off piste where they have little local knowledge.

...not that well trained then... :lol: :evil:

Sorry both, Andy is right re SCGB Leaders and someone who read the draft of that story had already pointed it out to me (that SCGB leaders do take people off piste) and I had corrected my master copy this end but it looks like I skillfully managed to post the initial version - will correct now. There appear to be similarities and differences between 'leading' and 'hosting' (1) They both take Brits on guided tours of the ski area for no extra cost - you're supposed to be in the Ski Club to be led by a SCGB leader, or a client of the tour op for the hosting equivalent. (2) Leaders can go on all terrain, hosts stick to easier pistes (3) Neither hosts nor leaders need to have ski teaching qualifications it seems, though some do. I've been told anecdotal stories about bad SCGB leaders which makes you think the French may have a point. Then again I've had first hand experience of terrible behaviour by fully qualified ESF teachers who lost one of my kids on the slopes of la Plagne and hadn't noticed/didn't care. (4) In terms of French legal implications, Leaders get no cash payment but get help with expenses, hosts get paid overall for their week's work (a few tour ops, I'm told, seem to be arguing the hosting bit is an extras bit of voluntary work on top of regular paid duties, presumably to try to skirt around the French law)