Greek public workers start 2-day nationwide strike

Thousands of Greek civil servants have launched a two-day nationwide strike to protest a job redeployment scheme and planned job cuts.

The striking workers marched through the capital Athens on Wednesday holding banners reading, “No to layoffs” and “No to the dissolution of public services.”

“They will abolish permanence and sell whatever they can from the public property, be it schools, hospitals, social insurance funds,” said public worker Christos Vagenas.

The work stoppage has affected all public services in the country with schools and courts closed, while hospitals are running with reduced staff.

The nationwide strike followed protests earlier in the week. On September 16, more than 17,000 teachers and civil servants staged protests and on the next day hospital workers and lawyers joined the rallies.

The striking public workers are protesting against the government’s plans to transfer 25,000 public workers by the end of this year to a labor pool, where workers will receive reduced wages until they are relocated to another post or laid off.

In addition to the forced transfers, another 15,000 public workers are to be fired by the end of 2014.

The government’s moves are part of an overhaul of the public sector demanded by the troika of international lenders — the European Union (EU), the European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund — to release financial aid to the country.

The country is suffering its sixth year of recession with public debt standing at 160 percent of its gross national product as well as a staggering 27.9 percent of Greeks unemployed.

Conservative Prime Minister Antonis Samaras said on September 16 that it would take another six years for the Greek economy to return to pre-crisis levels.

The strikes, which continue until Friday, come just days before the troika of international lenders is to visit Athens to assess the country’s progress in promised reforms.

Their evaluation will pave the way for the disbursement of the next bailout tranche scheduled for October.

Greece has so far received two major aid packages totaling to nearly 240 billion euros. It will reportedly need an additional third bailout at the amount of 10 billion euros to cover a funding gap.