Austrian Ski chalets holidays threatened by new wage rule row
With snow falling and the official start of the European ski season a fortnight away, the future of traditional chalet holidays in Austria has been thrown into jeopardy
Hard on the heels of Switzerland, Austria – second only to France as the most popular destination for British skiers – is set to introduce a minimum wage law this Thursday aimed at foreign workers including chalet staff and tour operator reps. The new measures would become enforceable as early as New Year’s Day.
Under a fresh amendment to existing legislation, British travel companies would have to pay their estimated 500 staff in Austria the accepted Austrian hotel industry minimum wage of around 1,000 euros a month – and they would have to do this on top of their traditional salary package that is largely made up of payment-in-kind.
This includes flights, accommodation, food, a season’s ski pass, insurance, equipment rental, and overtime shift payments, as well as pocket money.
What is more, Austrian annual salary is divided into 14 – not 12 –payments. British companies would have to fork out seven months’ pay for their staff over the six-month season.
A number of Austrian Ski Chalets holiday operators including Inghams, Ski Esprit, Ski Total and VIP run their own hotels as well as chalets at reasonable prices in Austria with mainly British staff. They maintain this would not be possible if they were forced to pay Austrian minimum wages.
If they do not abide by the new rules, tour operators could face fines of up to 10,000 euros per employee for a first offence or up to 20,000 euros where three or more staff are involved – on top of paying any backlog in wages and social security payments.
The colourfully-named Anti Wage and Social Dumping Act was primarily aimed at maintaining wage levels as migrant workers arrived from new member states of the European Union.
British tour operators were urgently seeking clarification of the law today and hoping to arrange at least an amnesty for this ski season.
When a similar amendment to the law was introduced in Switzerland in June 2013, British tour operators had already contracted properties for last winter and were given an amnesty until the start of this coming season. As a result mass market tour operators have virtually dropped their Swiss chalet programmes this season.
Andy Perrin, CEO of Hotelplan UK, which includes Inghams, Ski Total and Ski Esprit said: “: “It’s one more kick in the teeth. We first heard about this only a fortnight ago and we are trying to make sense of it. “We take extreme exception to the suggestion that we are wage dumping. On the salary packages that we offer what our staff have in their pockets is considerably more than anyone on the minimum wage in the UK.
“We do not see this as the way to go about such far-reaching and Draconian change. We have staff contracted for the season and already in place in Austria. We have our first guests arriving in a fortnight and our brochures for winter 2015/16 are due out in three weeks. Yet these regulations supposedly start from January.”
Ironically, the change in the law in Switzerland has seen a marked increase in bookings to Austrian resorts such as Lech and St Anton this autumn.
If the law is enforced from New Year, the short-term winners will be chalet staff working in Austria, who are likely to have their wages boosted dramatically. However, if that situation arises, it seems unlikely that most of those jobs will be available next winter.
Austrian Ski Chalets – Article By Peter Hardy 4:44PM GMT 17 Nov 2014 Telegraph Snow and Board
