SAM Magazine—Denver, April 17, 2026—Nearly 2,000 current and former ski and snowboard instructors have joined a collective action Fair Labor Standards Act lawsuit against Vail Resorts, according to reports citing consent forms filed in federal court in Colorado last week. 

Quint et al. v. Vail Resorts, Inc., was first filed in 2020 by three Beaver Creek employees, two ski instructors and one lift ticket scanner, who allege Vail Resorts violated the Fair Labor Standards Act by not paying snowsports instructors for time spent traveling between work sites, putting on and taking off gear and equipment, and attending training, as well as not being reimbursed for costs of work-related equipment purchases and cell phone use.   

Vail Resorts has denied any wrongdoing or violation of any laws in this case and believes it has paid and continues to pay all instructors in full compliance with the law, according to a website for the class action suit.

Approximately 24,000 employees, anyone who worked as ski or snowboard instructors at Vail Resorts properties anytime since the 2017-18 winter season, were eligible to join the collective action. Eligible individuals had to actively opt-in to the suit, and the case attempted to notify these individuals of their option to join via postal mail and email. 

The deadline to join was April 15, but with only about 8 percent of eligible people opting in, the Vail Daily reported that the plaintiffs were concerned that not everyone received the notice. The parties were scheduled to discuss the issue at a court-ordered hearing on April 15. The outcome of the hearing has not been reported. 

The Colorado case is intertwined with a similar class-action suit in California state court. Vail Resorts negotiated a $13.1 million settlement in 2022 to end the case brought by more than 100,000 employees from 17 states who alleged they were not paid for hours worked. That settlement was thrown out by California’s Third Appellate District, which ruled that the plaintiffs in the Colorado lawsuit should have been allowed to intervene, according to the Vail Daily.

Vail Resorts in January asked the California Supreme Court to review the overturned settlement decision.