French hospital staff treating coronavirus patients to get €1,500
French hospital staff are to receive bonuses of up to €1,500 (£1,300) as part of the government’s “urgent economic plan” in response to the coronavirus crisis.
Frontline doctors, nurses and auxiliary staff battling to treat patients during the pandemic will be awarded tax-free sums of between €500 and €1,500.
The higher sum will be given to hospital workers dealing directly with Covid-19 patients. Those in less affected areas will receive the lower bonus.
Public hospital staff will also be paid time and a half on overtime hours for the duration of the health crisis. Like the bonus, this will be free of tax and national insurance charges.
“The crisis demands responses that are of the measure of the shock we are enduring,” the prime minister, Édouard Philippe, said announcing the emergency measures after a meeting of the French cabinet on Wednesday.
“We are standing up to the coronavirus epidemic, firstly thanks to the incredible dedication of all the country’s healthcare personnel,” he said.
He announced an injection of €8bn into health system, €4bn of which would be spent on “equipment and masks” and the rest on financial support for personnel who he said were “on the frontline, day and night”.
Philippe also said bonuses would be given to those working in care homes; the details are to be decided in talks with local authorities.
The health workers’ bonuses and overtime package is expected to cost around €1.3bn and are part of a €110bn budget package to “save the economy” and respond to those hardest hit by the coronavirus crisis.
Philippe added that the government would make extra social ben
efit payments to the country’s poorest households.
An estimated 4 million families on minimum incomes will receive a one-off payment of €150 plus €100 per dependent child. Other low-income families will be allocated €100 per child.
The bonuses and payments are not expected to be made before mid-May.