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VACCINATION

Travel agency offers ‘vaccination holiday’ from Switzerland to Russia

Tired of waiting for your turn to get vaccinated so you can go on holiday? Why not kill two birds with one stone?

Travel agency offers 'vaccination holiday' from Switzerland to Russia
Photo: Would you travel to Russia to get vaccinated? Photo: YURI KADOBNOV / AFP

While some countries have powered through the early stages of the vaccination drive, Switzerland has done so much more slowly. 

But for anyone who is tired of waiting for their jab and is concerned about whether they’ll be able to take a summer vacation, there appears to be a solution. 

People who don’t want to wait for their Pfizer or Moderna shots in Switzerland can now travel to Russia to get inoculated, according to Travel Inside Magazine.

READ MORE: Why is Zurich’s vaccination rollout the slowest in Switzerland?

A Norwegian travel agency, World Visitor, is recruiting people from Switzerland, among others, to get Sputnik V vaccines in Moscow.

The agency is offering two options: for 1,499 euros (CHF1,662), the tourist will fly to Moscow twice, get the two jabs at the airport. This way, no visa to enter Russia is needed.

In between, the traveller will stay in Istanbul. 

The second option, which costs 1,999 euros (CHF2,216), includes flying to Moscow twice, staying for four days each time, and having the vaccine administered in a local hospital.

For anyone seriously considering the plan, the costs are likely to be higher. 

In addition to the flat rate fees above, you are expected to shell out for the doctors fees/medical expenses and an interpreter to make sure there’s no communication breakdown. 

While the fee includes a booking for the vaccine, it does not include the fee for the vaccine itself. All in all, these additional costs are estimated to stack up to “a few hundred francs”. 

Swiss citizens are particularly sought after by the Norwegian travel agency due to the ease in which they can get Russian visas, Swiss newspaper 20 Minutes reports

There’s also something in it for Switzerland’s hard-hit domestic travel market.

Swiss travel agencies which act as a mediator between the budding vacationers and the Norwegian company will get a ten percent cut. 

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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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