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Free holidays in Ibiza offered to healthcare heroes across Europe

A new charity initiative is offering free holidays to European healthcare workers and their families as thanks for their hard work and sacrifice during the COVID-19 crisis.

Free holidays in Ibiza offered to healthcare heroes across Europe
Photos: AFP

The Ibiza based charity, Together for Healthcare Heroes, is offering 10,000 free holidays for heroic healthcare workers in Ibiza and destinations across Europe. The initiative is supported by the city councils of Ibiza and hotel groups such as 7Pines Kempinski, Aguas de Ibiza, OD Hotels, Destino and Concept Group are already participating by donating rooms for the scheme.

The initiative will offer free week long stays in April, May or October 2021 “for healthcare heroes out of gratitude” for their efforts during the pandemic, according to the website,and will include medical professionals from countries including Germany, the UK, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Greece, Portugal, Sweden, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Ireland, Croatia and Luxembourg.

The charity is appealing for hoteliers and luxury villa owners to donate their properties to the scheme, aiming for 1000 top class accommodations across Europe, and they hope to be able to offer trips to Ibiza, Formentera, Mykonos, Greek Isles, Sardinia, Sicily, Corsica, Algarve, South of France, UK, Ireland, Scandinavia, Swiss & French Alps and cities like London, Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin and Zurich.

Together for Healthcare Heroes hope to raise €4 million through crowdfunding to pay for the flights and insurances of 10,000 travellers, and to be able to offer at least 5000 European Healthcare Heroes and their families a free one-week stay for a total of 10,000 guests.

Prof. Olivier Borens, part of the Advisory Board comments: “The medical profession has faced one of the hardest years in history. I am very proud to be part of this initiative that recognises this and is celebrating all those working at the frontline of this pandemic crisis. They are bringing people together from all walks of life, all with one goal, to give thanks to Healthcare Heroes.”

The nomination process is currently being finalised ready for the full launch in the next couple of weeks, and a verification process will be put in place.

If you are a Healthcare Hero, or know somebody deserving who is, you can register your interest here. You will be notified as soon as the nomination process goes live and is accepting nominations. 

It is believed the holidays will be allocated on a lottery basis, a decision made after consulting doctors and nurses. These could be lotteries held internally, within individual hospitals, or centrally at T4HH initiative. 

By Conor Patrick Faulkner

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TRAVEL NEWS

German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

Germany's Deutsche Bahn rail operator and the GDL train drivers' union have reached a deal in a wage dispute that has caused months of crippling strikes in the country, the union said.

German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

“The German Train Drivers’ Union (GDL) and Deutsche Bahn have reached a wage agreement,” GDL said in a statement.

Further details will be announced in a press conference on Tuesday, the union said. A spokesman for Deutsche Bahn also confirmed that an agreement had been reached.

Train drivers have walked out six times since November, causing disruption for huge numbers of passengers.

The strikes have often lasted for several days and have also caused disruption to freight traffic, with the most recent walkout in mid-March.

In late January, rail traffic was paralysed for five days on the national network in one of the longest strikes in Deutsche Bahn’s history.

READ ALSO: Why are German train drivers launching more strike action?

Europe’s largest economy has faced industrial action for months as workers and management across multiple sectors wrestle over terms amid high inflation and weak business activity.

The strikes have exacerbated an already gloomy economic picture, with the German economy shrinking 0.3 percent across the whole of last year.

What we know about the new offer so far

Through the new agreement, there will be optional reduction of a work week to 36 hours at the start of 2027, 35.5 hours from 2028 and then 35 hours from 2029. For the last three stages, employees must notify their employer themselves if they wish to take advantage of the reduction steps.

However, they can also opt to work the same or more hours – up to 40 hours per week are possible in under the new “optional model”.

“One thing is clear: if you work more, you get more money,” said Deutsche Bahn spokesperson Martin Seiler. Accordingly, employees will receive 2.7 percent more pay for each additional or unchanged working hour.

According to Deutsche Bahn, other parts of the agreement included a pay increase of 420 per month in two stages, a tax and duty-free inflation adjustment bonus of 2,850 and a term of 26 months.

Growing pressure

Last year’s walkouts cost Deutsche Bahn some 200 million, according to estimates by the operator, which overall recorded a net loss for 2023 of 2.35 billion.

Germany has historically been among the countries in Europe where workers went on strike the least.

But since the end of 2022, the country has seen growing labour unrest, while real wages have fallen by four percent since the start of the war in Ukraine.

German airline Lufthansa is also locked in wage disputes with ground staff and cabin crew.

Several strikes have severely disrupted the group’s business in recent weeks and will weigh on first-quarter results, according to the group’s management.

Airport security staff have also staged several walkouts since January.

Some politicians have called for Germany to put in place rules to restrict critical infrastructure like rail transport from industrial action.

But Chancellor Olaf Scholz has rejected the calls, arguing that “the right to strike is written in the constitution… and that is a democratic right for which unions and workers have fought”.

The strikes have piled growing pressure on the coalition government between Scholz’s Social Democrats, the Greens and the pro-business FDP, which has scored dismally in recent opinion polls.

The far-right AfD has been enjoying a boost in popularity amid the unrest with elections in three key former East German states due to take place later this year.

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