Now Three Separate French Legal Actions Against British Ski Companies and Clubs
Now Three Separate French Legal Actions Against British Ski Companies and Clubs
Published : 23-Apr-2014 02:08
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.
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