DEFENCE MINISTRY SAYS THERE WON'T BE MASS LAYOFFS

ZAGREB, Oct 1 (Hina) - A Defence Ministry spokesman has refuted media allegations about 3,000 layoffs to begin at the ministry this week, describing them as "groundless speculation." The number of Defence Ministry employees will be reduced by 3,000 by the end of the year, Brigadier Dusan Viro told Hina on Monday, stating this refers to people who have been on sick leave for years or meet criteria for early retirement. Viro said the reduction of ministry employees began a year ago, with 3,000 having gone into retirement, which reduced the number of employees to 41,000. Next year, employees in military hotels, rest centres and emergency centres, and the Aviation-Technical Institute will get new employers. A commissioner with the union of civil servants employed at the Defence Ministry, Stjepan Gamilec, recalled that last week unionists were promised at a meeting with Assistant Defence Minister Lt. Gen. Marijan Marekovic that surplus labour at the ministry would be dealt with gradually, over the next 5-10 years, by making some services commercial, through retraining and retirements. "We were told at the meeting that nobody at the Defence Ministry would be made available, even if this required reducing salaries," Gamilec told Hina. The problem is around 200 employees insufficiently qualified for their current jobs. Some could be retrained and some made available to the government, he said. (hina) ha sb