The Romanian public sector must lay off 26,000 employees between September and December, to bring the sector down to 1.29 million employees and allow salaries to be raised by 15 percent, after the 25 percent slash implemented in July, Finance Ministry state secretary Gheorghe Gherghina said Tuesday.

The Romanian public sector employed 1.3 million people in December 2009, meaning around 88,000 people should be sacked this year. The staffs of local authorities, the education and agriculture sectors will also be reduced, said Gherghina, as not all of the scheduled layoffs have gone through.

Mediafax