Unions Bloc and of Cartel Alfa leaders suggest fewer working hours for the employees working in state departments. According to them, the schedule should be reduced to 38 hours a week, or even 20. They say that if employees were to be forced into an unpaid holiday, it could affect their pensions.

"We cannot accept the 10 days unpaid vacation. Each institution needs to discuss it with their unions and agree on redundancies or other reductions not mentioned so far. One variant that we will propose in the discussion with the PM next week is a shorter working week: from 40 working hours to 38. If one is to have free days, this could lead to a decrease in pension", Cartel Alfa vice-president Luca Octavian declared on Tuesday for Romanian press agency NewsIn.

He said he would agree for fewer working hours in 2010 as well, if this helped reducing the income expenditure.

In his turn, BNS president Dumitru Costin stated that a possible measure meant to reduce income spending could see a shorter working day: four hours instead of eight, for a limited amount of time. Another solution proposed by him addresses the extra hours employees in the state departments are subject to, and a drastic cut of unnecessary business trips.