Ski ops challenge Austria’s plan to increase minimum wage
Ski operators claim plans by the Austrian government to increase the minimum wage could force increased prices and put off skiers.
Powder White is leading a campaign to highlight how damaging the plans by the Austrian government could be for those working in the ski industry.
It said the move would result in higher costs halfway through the ski season.
Politicians are proposing that non-resident workers are paid the same wages as Austrian employees, irrespective of other elements of their remuneration package.
In Austria, employees are paid for 14 months, not for 12. If this was pro-rata’d over the ski season, then a chalet host would be paid for seven months and not for six.
Ski operators would have to pay the Austrian Minimum Wage as well as other elements of the salary package already given such as free accommodation, food, ski pass, ski hire, insurance, and travel.
Fraser Ewart-White, founder of Powder White, said: "These highly damaging proposals would lead to a large increase in employment costs, which will affect the viability of providing good value chalet holidays in Austria.
"We are working with other ski operators to challenge these plans which, if passed, would hurt the Austrian tourism industry immensely.
"We would ask the Austrian government to think very hard about these law changes, which if implemented, would be bad news for the country and also not enable operators to pull out this season if they wanted to due to holidays already sold."
The Austrian government has passed a final version of its proposal to amend the Austrian Anti Wage Dumping Act and it could be approved November 20th.
The changes would take effect from January 1, 2015.
Diane
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