Employment compensation

A review of all the pensions being issued by the Greek state which started two years ago in a bid to weed out false claims has resulted in savings of 42.2 million euros, Alternate Finance Minister Christos Staikouras said on Tuesday while presenting the findings of a General Accounting Office census which highlighted hundreds of cases of people claiming the pensions of their dead relatives.

A review of the pensions being paid out by the Greek state and new, stricter rules governing pension registrations have led to savings of a total of 42 million euros in the past two years, Alternate Finance Minister Christos Staikouras said on Tuesday.

"Immediate 15 percent cuts of pensions and salaries"

BELGRADE -- Unless public sector salaries and pensions are immediately reduced by 15 percent linearly, a new reduction will have to be implemented in the next year.

BELGRADE - Unless public sector salaries and pensions are immediately reduced by 15 percent linearly, a new reduction will have to be implemented in the next year already, the Fiscal Council warned and added that any lower cut would compel the government to make up for the funds through VAT increase.

BELGRADE - The members of the Social Economic Council of Serbia have not come to an agreement on the minimum price of labour for next year, Labour Minister Aleksandar Vulin said on Sunday.

"It means that the government will decide on it at one of its upcoming meetings," he told reporters after a meeting of the council.

BELGRADE - The government has insufficient funds for pensions, but pension cuts alone will not be sufficient to ensure the sustainability of the pension system unless they are accompanied by financial consolidation in all sectors, the participants in a debate on pension system reform said on Wednesday.

Teachers protest as school year starts

BELGRADE -- The Association of Teachers' Trade Unions of Serbia staged a protest rally in Belgrade on the first day of the new school year,.

They are demanding from the government to exclude the education and health-care sectors from the announced reduction in public sector wages by ten percent.

The Bulgarian Industrial Association (BIA) has opposed the proposal to increase the minimum wage and the social security contributions.

BIA explains in a media statement that it firmly opposed the plans to cope with the chronic deficit in the systems of social security and health insurance through an administrative increase in the minimum insurance income.

Yordan Hristoskov, Bulgaria's caretaker Minister of Labor and Social Policy, has suggested that a minimum wage hike from BGN 340 to BGN 400 will not harm the business sector.

In a Thursday interview for private TV station bTV, Hristoskov said that it was high time to do something about Bulgaria still being at the bottom of the EU ranking by guaranteed minimum income.

As a part of budget rebalance, Croatian Ministry of Finance is planning to cut some of salary supplements in the public sector.

Government is seeking a way to cover their budget deficit which will probably reach more than 2 billion euro or 4.8 per cent of annual GDP, which is 0.2 per cent more than envisaged in talks with the European Commission.