Premium
The project of putting public employees on furlough was difficult to enforce, especially in certain areas where the fight against COVID-19 would have been affected, and this project "has fallen completely", Prime Minister Ludovic Orban told private broadcaster B1 TV on Thursday evening.
"It was very difficult to enforce, the considerations were more epidemiological in nature, obviously and considerations of solidarity. On the other hand, we've entered the extension of the state of emergency. We don't have the context until regulation is adopted. (...) It's not a period of application. In addition, we also have difficulties related to the fact that there are many public institutions, many domains of activity that work with their engines revved and where such a measure of half-staff can not be applied, such as Health care, Internal Affairs, Education (...), even employees of the Public Finance Ministry who have extremely laborious activity during that period. Also, employees with the Ministry of Labour. (...) It was very difficult to enforce such a measure, because there remained quite small areas of the administration where it could have applied without affecting the mobilization of the administration in the fight against COVID-19," the premier explained.
Orban added that there are some spending cuts from the budget.
"For example, those who are in teleworking lose their benefits. (...) There were also decisions of some authorities aimed, where possible, at reducing the activity. I mean, some measures that were taken, practically, we had no time to apply such a measure ăfurlough, ed. n.î ," Ludovic Orban said.
The premier stressed that he had discussed a policy "as severe as possible" regarding the unnecessary expenditure at the level of state-owned companies, considering that restructuring at their level will be a market-dictated necessity.
"Restructuring will also be conducted out of necessity, because many companies will no longer be able to maintain a crowded establishment plan, especially in the central apparatus or in the regional apparatus," said Ludovic Orban.
