Lithuanian officials save 2 million litas

  • 2000-02-10
VILNIUS (BNS) - Lithuanian civil servants in Vilnius and in the provinces saved over 2.2 million litas ($550,000) by taking the so-called "solidarity" unpaid leave in the period between Christmas and the New Year, the Finance Ministry reported.

On the invitation of the government to join the "solidarity" leave scheme because of difficulties in the state budget, the president, the prime minister the parliamentary speaker and other civil servants worked without pay for a week.

The government had stressed that the scheme of taking a five-day unpaid leave or transferring part of the salary into the state budget was entirely voluntary, based on everybody's free will to take part in the action.