Romanian state employees will not be forced to take unpaid holiday in 2010, Economy minister Adriean Videanu declared on Sunday evening, January 10. He says the measure will not be enforced anymore because incomes have been frozen.

"The unpaid holiday was a solution given by the context, but it will cease in 2010. Freezing the salaries makes it unnecessary", Economy minister Adriean Videanu declared for Romanian TV channel Realitatea TV.

Videanu also denied the rumours according to which if 100,000 state employees are not fired until September, the IMF suggests as alternative an increase in VAT to 21%. "Under no circumstance. I want to deny all this errors. The only thing that the Fund asks is the restructuring of public spending", the minister explained.

State employees in Romania were forced to take ten days of unpaid holiday in the last two months of 2009.