Skopje, 17 October 2022 (MIA) – Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski confirmed Monday that no public administration employee will be laid off, and the measures adopted by the Government refer to cost reduction and fiscal consolidation. “The measures refer to cost reduction and fiscal consolidation, and also the increase of revenues. Neither I, nor any other minister has ever said that employment contracts will be terminated and that the employees will be laid off, this was also confirmed by the Minister of Labour and Social Policy,” said Kovachevski in answer to a journalist’s question. Kovachevski explained that the intention is for the managers and the directors of the public enterprises and state-owned companies, as well as other institutions, to apply the best management practices in order to reduce costs. “Additionally, all institutions should determine what number of employees is optimal for them, because let’s not forget, if the employees are rotated, and this is already being done by private companies, if a portion of the employees are on holiday when electricity prices are peaking, if there are rotations so employees can work from home, then the costs will be reduced not only for the employees, but also costs related to the operations of the institution, such as heating, lighting, etc.” said Kovachevski. Minister of Labor and Social Policy, Jovanka Trenchevska, said Saturday that there will be no layoffs or salary reductions of public administration employees. Trenchevska said that in the cost reduction policy there is no single measure like that, but rather that they are recommendations on how to save in the public sector so that the money which is saved can be transferred to the real sector. “No measure states that there will be layoffs or salary reductions. One of the measures is rationalization and optimization of public sector employees through a functional analysis, i.e., to determine if the institution has the sufficient number of employees or a surplus,” said Trenchevska, adding that those who are redundant will not be laid off, but the aim is to carry out an optimization and take over those employees through mobility. ad/sk/