ACC levy hikes outrage skifields

SHANE COWLISHAW/ The Southland Times

GUARD UP: Alta snow and skate store manager Jamie Eassett wants to see some of the levy hike used to prevent injuries on the slopes, such as providing free wristguards for rental stores.

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Snow lovers may have to spend more to shred the slopes this season after massive ACC levy hikes for the ski industry, which have outraged Queenstown-Lakes operators.

The increases will mean skifields will pay 80 per cent extra in workplace levies to cover the cost of accidents for staff.

The move has fallen flat with the three main skifield operators in the district and could lead to more expensive lift passes this winter.

Snow Park general manager Sam Lee said the actual amount they had to claim for injuries to staff in the workplace was lucky to be 10 per cent of what they paid to ACC.

Plans to drop the lift pass rates for the coming season would have to be shelved and prices would potentially rise by $3 or $4, he said.

"At the end of the day it's unfortunate but it is going to have to be passed on to the people buying the lift passes.

"It's not something we can sustain," he said.

"It doesn't make any sense to us and it's sort of a kick in the nuts."

NZSki chief executive James Coddington was unavailable for comment yesterday but told One News on Wednesday the company's levies would jump from $300,000 to $540,000 this year.

Remarkables Ski Area manager Ross Lawrence said they had been informed of the hike in October and had been fighting it ever since.

Mr Lawrence would not comment on whether staff cuts or price increases were an option to mitigate the increase.

Cardrona field manager Gary Husband said the hike was disappointing and would impact on the skifield's operational costs, but it was too early to say how the business would deal with it.

Alta snowboard store manager Jamie Eassett suggested part of the levy increase should be used to prevent injuries on the slopes.

About five years ago ACC had provided free wristguards for rental stores to give to people heading to the slopes, which was a great idea, he said.

But ACC head of product and scheme management Peter Wood said the levy was strictly for workers who were injured in the workplace.

Levies had gone up for all industries but there were two reasons skifields had seen such a large increase, he said.

Obviously there was a much higher risk working on a skifield than other jobs, but the industry had also not improved its workplace standards on par with others, he said.

While there were only a few claims each year, there were one or two serious injuries that could stretch for decades and cost as much as $15 million to $20m over that time, he said.

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