Romanian national television TVR decided to reduce the employees’ working time from five to four days a week, which translates into a 20% cut in wages.

The decision, which was taken by the TVR Board of Directors on Tuesday, July 28, triggered a protest among employees. TVR’s representatives said that the measure was temporary and that the board also decided to start negotiations for personnel layoffs.

Other cost-saving decisions target cutting expenses with external contractors by up to 75% and giving up all TV production that generate high costs. TVR already closed the TVR news channel and restructured some departments to reduce the number of management positions.

The decisions came after Romania’s Tax Authority had blocked TVR’s accounts the week before, because of the high level of debt TVR had to pay the state budget.

The public television had almost EUR 160 million of debt at the end of 2014, some EUR 100 million of which was to the state budget. TVR had revenues of EUR 122 million and EUR 18 million losses in 2014.

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editor@romania-insider.com