Employees must work through their season-end date to be eligible for a $2-per-hour bonus for all hours worked after January 1. “Staffing was always going to be tight given the global labor shortage, but the acceleration of Omicron, late snow, and many other factors created particularly challenging impacts for our operations teams,” said Kirstin Lynch, the company’s CEO.
Employees of Vail Resorts who stick with their jobs through the end of the season will receive a $2 per hour bonus for all hours worked after January 1, the Vail Daily reported.
“It is unusual to take these actions in the middle of the season, but this is an unusual season,” CEO Kirstin Lynch told employees in an e-mail, referring to this ski season as “incredibly challenging.”
The full payout of the bonus will occur in May; employees must work through their season-end date to be eligible, the Daily reported. The bonus is for this season only; Lynch said Vail Resorts will review employee compensation at the end of the season.
“These bonus programs are specific to this year and the unique challenges of this season,” Lynch said.
Lynch acknowledged that Vail Resorts workers have carried an extra burden this season, the Daily reported.
“Staffing was always going to be tight given the global labor shortage, but the acceleration of Omicron, late snow, and many other factors created particularly challenging impacts for our operations teams,” she said. “We were all hoping this season would be more ‘normal,’ however, as we went through the busy holiday period, it became apparent that we are still navigating the impacts of this pandemic.”
Vail Resorts received a barrage of bad press to start 2022, with tales of bad guest experiences over the holidays making headlines from coast to coast, the Daily reported. Last week, Wall Street financial corporation Truist Financial published an opinion referencing labor problems at Vail Resorts.
“[Vail Resorts] may need to bite the bullet and raise wages even higher in order to bring the quality of the product back to its historically excellent levels,” wrote Patrick Scholes with Truist.
The Seattle Times also published a piece on January 7 saying pass purchasers were “getting cheated” this season due to overcrowding and a lack of terrain openings, later that day Lynch sent an e-mail to employees saying “it is clear that there are actions that need to be taken this season.”
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