After more than a year and a half of hope but above all of disillusionment, the French ski resorts are preparing to find this season an affluence close to what they knew before the crisis.
A real relief for the sector, which has suffered very heavily from the crisis, with a shortfall which amounts after two very complicated seasons to several billion euros.
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At the time of the reopening, the stations are desperately looking for help ... While recruitments have started a few weeks ago, job offers remain unanswered today.
“Not a single profession is spared by these tensions.
Whether it is equipment rental companies, hotels, restaurants, shops or even ski lifts: not all are able to recruit, ”
notes Antoine Fatiga, CGT national manager for ski lifts.
Closure of ski lifts
Faced with these difficulties, Domaines skiables de France (DSF), the union chamber of ski lift operators, has launched a recruitment campaign on social networks to try to find the many seasonal workers who are missing. Because a few weeks before the opening of the domains, the situation becomes more and more critical.
“This year, real tension has set in in our businesses. We note on the one hand a lower number of spontaneous applications and on the other hand a lower rate of return of seasonal workers than usual ”
, details Laurent Reynaud, general delegate of DSF.
From one season to another, the union estimates in normal times that 80% of the 18,000 seasonal workers it represents return to the resort.
But this year, the rate is rather 50%.
More generally, between 50,000 and 60,000 seasonal workers normally join ski resorts each season.
But in 2020-2021, with the closure of ski lifts, the number of seasonal workers in mountain areas decreased by 58% compared to the previous winter and flirted with 25,000, according to figures from Dares.
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"The fact of having closed an entire season obviously plays a big role in these tensions,"
said Laurent Reynaud.
Professionals expected it.
“Last winter, many seasonal workers were not recruited by companies despite the introduction of partial unemployment.
Their situation was very complicated, so when we are treated in this way, we should not expect to see them flocking to our fields again this year
,
”
explains Antoine Fatiga.
Leave the area
According to him, many workers have changed their aspirations and decided to leave the sector because of the crisis.
With the desire to reorient themselves towards other less restrictive trades which ensure better job security.
Another argument put forward by the trade unionist: the impact of the reform of unemployment insurance, which penalizes active people doing odd jobs.
“
Some people who had a real passion for these professions leave them because financially it is no longer possible.
They therefore prefer long contracts in the plain, ”
notes Antoine Fatiga.
A situation that obviously does not do the business of ski resorts.