Minister of Labor, Family, and Social Affairs Ivan Svetlik of Slovenia

At the beginning of December, Svetlik met with the European Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs, Vladimir Spidla.

The Editors: Ivan Svetlik is professor of HRM, labour market and employment policy at Ljubljana University.

Ljubljana, 12 December (STA) - Slovenia's Labour Minister Ivan Svetlik has said that the government is drawing up measures to retain jobs during the economic downturn.

In that case the budget will need restructuring," Svetlik says in an interview with STA.

Svetlik says the government will help companies financially and encourage shorter working time instead of lay-offs.

Asked whether he supports proposed cuts in social contributions payable by employers, Svetlik says such measure can only be temporary.

The crisis is also the time for enhanced social dialogue, which Svetlik says will go beyond trade unions and employers, and will include other organised groups such as pensioners, students etc.

The coalition agreement says that a pension reform is not necessary at this point, however Svetlik says that the system will have to be modernised.

We could launch a campaign to raise employers' awareness and to help them with the schemes for older employees to raise their awareness and involve them in training and education," Svetlik says about the options, adding it is necessary to build a system first.

Ivan Svetlik was born on 4 September 1950 in Srednja Kanomlja in the Municipality of Idrija.

Labour Minister Ivan Svetlik said only companies from the real sector of the economy which do not lay-off any full-time employees and do not pay special rewards to managers will be eligible for subsidies for a period of 6 months to one year.