SkiCo, restaurant worker near deal in commuter dispute

Rick Carroll, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer
An Aspen Skiing Co. restaurant employee’s lawsuit, which argues that he and others should be paid for their time taking the lift to work, is nearing a settlement agreement, based on court records. This photo shows ski patrollers, who are not part of the proposed class-action suit, taking the Summit Express chairlift on Buttermilk. Aspen Daily News file

Aspen Skiing Co. is nearing a settlement agreement with a restaurant employee over his lawsuit’s claims that on-mountain staff are entitled to compensation for their time spent commuting to work on chairlifts, snowcats and snowmobiles.

According to court filings in Craig Stout’s proposed class-action suit against SkiCo, the pending settlement comes after the parties agreed, and 9th Judicial District Court Judge Anne Norrdin concurred, to suspend court proceedings in late January to allow them to negotiate outside of court.

“The Parties have reached an agreement in principle to resolve this matter on a classwide basis,” said a joint motion filed May 1 by the parties’ respective Denver-based attorneys: Alexander Hood, of the legal nonprofit Towards Justice, for Stout and Austin Jensen, of Holland & Hart, for SkiCo.

The filing did not provide details on the nature of the agreement.

Norrdin on May 2 approved their request to keep the proceedings paused until May 31, by which time the parties said they would file a motion for the judge’s preliminary approval of the settlement or provide an update on progress toward a settlement, based on court records.

Stout’s lawsuit claims that SkiCo employees deserve pay for their past on-mountain commutes. The suit asserts claims under the Colorado Wage Claim Act, Colorado Minimum Wage Act and Colorado Consumer Protection Act.

According to the lawsuit’s allegations, on-mountain workers at SkiCo “face physical hazard and exertion well beyond normal commutes in order to get to and from these on-mountain facilities.”

The suit also accuses SkiCo of violating state laws concerning worker breaks and publishing misleading information about employee benefits on the company website.

SkiCo denied the claims in a motion to dismiss it filed Dec. 29. That was the last argument filed in the suit since Stout entered it Oct. 31 in Pitkin County District Court.

“Common sense dictates that it is implausible that traveling in the safety of a gondola/chairlift or snowcat/snowmobile is more dangerous than commuting to ASC in one’s own transportation amid snowy roads and icy conditions,” said the motion, which also argued that “drivers, too, must use safety equipment — a seat belt. Indeed, it defies common sense to think that sitting in an enclosed gondola, for example, is more dangerous than navigating snowy, icy roadways with fellow drivers nearby. You surely feel safer riding ASC’s gondolas than driving in winter conditions to ASC’s base areas. The same goes for riding a snowcat or snowmobile, which, unlike a typical car, are designed exclusively to handle winter conditions.”

SkiCo has a policy to not comment about active litigation. According to the lawsuit, Stout has worked at SkiCo’s on-mountain restaurants since 2022.

Stout’s lawyer, Hood, declined comment when contacted last week.

Hood also is part of a legal team seeking a class-action lawsuit in another Aspen-related matter, this one not involving SkiCo. Daniel Esteban Camas López sued Marriott in October, alleging the hotel company overworked and underpaid him when he interned at St. Regis Aspen under the J-1 Exchange Visitor Program. Marriott has denied the claims. The suit is active in U.S. District Court in Denver.

Courtesy of the Aspen Daily News