"Something like that does not exist," the minister said on Thursday while responding to reporters' queries how the government was planning to overhaul the public sector without layoffs.

The government's guidelines for the preparation of the state budget also refer to the public administration and public services such as the health-care and education, he said.

"As far as state-owned companies are concerned, they will undergo the restructuring," Linic said outside the government building.

As for the rights, entitlements and responsibilities regulated by the collective agreements, Minister Linic said that "the restructuring is not a subject matter of social negotiations or collective agreements".

Asked how much it could be saved in the overhauling of public companies, the minister said that it was a job of people who would come at the helm of those companies, and that the government had decided to engage agencies that would help it to establish the overall state of affairs.

Asked to comment on Linic's statements that there was no restructuring without layoffs, Deputy Prime Minister and Regional Development Minister Branko Grcic said that restructuring the public administration sector would be performed but not overnight.

This process will take one to two years, Grcic said.