End to ski hosting in France

tin pot wrote:
For €9/hr I'm happy to pay the chalet guide myself!

:P

I don't know how they work out the wages, but I imagine they deduct the cost of board and lodging. Maybe the court said they'd underpaid the chalet hosts because they'd deducted too much for this. I haven't seen a detailed account of the whole case, yet.

I expect a ski instructor has a professional guaranteed wage, which would be more than 9 euros per hour! Otherwise I think I might employ one myself as well -)

I'd expect deductions for board, lodging, ski pass, ski hire, provision of company clothing, travel out and back from UK.

Thanks Dorset Boy :)

I did read something somewhere that they get about £80 per week, net of all that, for their spending money. I suppose the ski hosts get paid the same as the general chalet hosts, and from what I could see (with a small chalet company) they all muck in on the cleaning and driving etc.

In France you can't deduct board and lodging. In an expensive area such as the 3 valleys, they have a duty of care to provide suitable accommodation. French seasonnaires have short term contracts and work hard for their money; and in return expect board and lodging. In 1987 I was earning minimum wage (over £100 a week) plus food and accommodation, chalet staff were on £30 a week. I've heard reports of some staff getting only £40 a week this year; as well as being forced to pay a bond to the company they work for. All highly illegal in France and most likely in the UK as well.

Oh dear Volf, that doesn't sound at all good :(

It seems as though some of the chalet companies are in more trouble than I thought. Maybe this will mean the end of chalet holidays in France altogether, not just the end of ski hosting, if the French crack down on all the relevant laws. :cry:

I don't see why the owners aren't allowed to deduct board and lodging from the wages, though. That must put the legal weekly wage up quite a bit!

Presumably the seasonaires put up with the lousy wages because they love ski-ing/snowboarding so much ...

At last you're beginning to get it!
As I said a few posts ago the hosting issue is only the tip of the iceberg.

Hi SwingBeep :)

So, how much do you think the chalet ski hosts/chalet girls and boys should be getting paid, versus how much they actually get?

I have no idea.

Most of the people employed by the UK TOs are employed as "posted workers" and as such their terms and conditions of employment are subject to the Posting of Workers Directive 96/71/EC http://www.accountingweb.co.uk/article/posted-workers-eu-proposals-table/530887 This website concerns the construction industry http://www.posting-workers.eu/content/default.asp?PageID=106 If you click on France you should be able to get some idea of what's involved. Bear in mind that European employment law generally favours the employee whereas UK employment law favours the employer.