On 11 December 2013, the Ministry of Strategy and Finance ordered 295 state-owned companies to cut their debt ratio by 200 per cent by 2017. The Ministry threatened managers who failed to reach this goal with dismissal. Companies need to develop plans to reduce debts, and the government will evaluate their efforts in the third quarter of 2014 and dismiss heads of organisations that are unable to present such a plan.
The FKTU believes that this plan intends to shift the responsibility of the debt to workers by stressing that debts are attributable to excessive salaries, bonuses and welfare benefits to the employees. Moreover, the government instructed the state-owned companies to change collective bargaining agreements which are not in line with its guidelines, providing a checklist of 58 items to be redressed. Most of these items have nothing to do with the debt.
