Summer 2024 Swimming pools defy the rainy summer - but others are hit really hard

A visit to a Zurich lakeside pool shows: The municipal operators are coping well with the rainy season. The situation is different for private bathing establishments and temporary staff.

Another gloomy day at Seebad Tiefenbrunnen in Zurich. Nothing new for operations manager Adi Kehl. He has been working in Zurich's outdoor pools for 21 years. The 2024 season wasn't particularly bad. "But of course we'd like better weather and more people."

The City of Zurich Sports Office provides the figures for the first half of the 2024 season: 605,000 admissions had been counted by July 14. "That's roughly half the number of admissions in the same period in 2023, which was the strongest season ever."

The fact that Kehl does not see the situation as dramatic is possibly also due to the fact that he still needs his permanent staff to keep the business running. The baths on Lake Zurich open every day, but close at 2 p.m. if the weather is too bad. Kehl explains: "Even when it rains, there are people who want to swim here."

He can't remember how many days he has closed the gates in the early afternoon. "I am required to use the resources carefully. That also means sending the employees home when there's nothing more to do."

Difficult situation for hourly-paid temporary staff

A large proportion of the workforce on any given day are permanent employees. If they finish work early, they work minus hours, which they make up on the sunny days. "These days can be very long," explains Kehl. Employees at the Zurich Badis are allowed to work a maximum of 50 hours in a week and no more than 100 in two weeks.

In 21 seasons, he has only finished one season with a negative working hours balance: "I had half an hour too few." He is certain that negative and overtime hours will balance each other out again this year.

The situation is different for the temporary staff that Zurich's pools rely on on hot days. If they are canceled four days or more before they are due to work, they are not paid. If this deadline has already passed, he finds a job, says Kehl: "There's always something to clean or repair." In the persistently wet early summer of 2024, however, there were significantly fewer assignments for temporary staff.

blue News is not allowed to talk to pool employees who work on an hourly wage and on call. Kehl admits that all the rain has already put some of them in a difficult financial situation. "Some are also looking for other sources of income."

Badi restaurants are making losses

The rainy bathing season is particularly difficult for restaurants. They rent the restaurants in Zurich's swimming pools and stores at their own risk.

At the outdoor pool in Zurich's Seefeld district, part of the catering space is rented out to Abreise AG. Its owner Bernard Kohli speaks plainly: "A bathing season lasts around 120 days. Now more than half is over and there have hardly been any good days." Income is 65 percent lower than the long-term average. Other operators of bathing establishments report a drop in turnover of up to 80 percent in "Blick".

Kohli calculates that a day of operation costs him at least 1,000 francs, even if he hardly sells anything. He pays wages, has to buy food that spoils, the stove, fridge and other kitchen equipment is leased - "it's not worth buying this equipment for five months of the year" - all these costs are incurred whether he generates revenue or not.

Kohli has only been running the Tiefenbrunnen lido for two seasons, but has been doing so for 27 years in various Zurich lidos. "There's only ever been such a bad first half of the season in all that time."

Temporary staff look for new jobs

Kohli also employs freelancers on an hourly wage basis. They earn less than they had hoped. "At first, we try to deploy them in other areas, such as catering, which we also offer." However, this is not always possible.

"Some look for another job, which fortunately is relatively easy at the moment," he says. They may not return if the weather takes a turn for the better and the bathers storm his restaurant in the pavilion.

The rainy 2024 bathing season does not threaten the existence of his business. They had built up reserves in good years. On the other hand, it has been difficult to generate a decent return since the coronavirus pandemic. 90 days of sunshine during the 120-day bathing season is the long-term average and he makes a profit from this duration onwards. If there are fewer days, the operating costs eat into the reserves. "If things continue like this, we will completely use up our reserves from the restaurant in the Tiefenbrunnen bathing complex."

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