Teachers hold placards reading ‘No to demolition of public education’ during a protest rally in front of the Greek Parliament on July 11, 2013 in Athens.<\/p>\n
Greek municipal workers have staged a third day of protests in the capital Athens against the government\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s plan to lay off public sector workers.\n<\/p>\n
Civil servants including police officers and teachers marched towards the Greek parliament on Thursday, chanting anti-government slogans during a protest against the government\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s new redundancy scheme in a bid to secure EU-IMF bailout funds.\n<\/p>\n
The main union for Greek municipal workers also called on members to occupy government buildings and blockade the entrance of the city hall in Greece’s second largest city, Thessaloniki.\n<\/p>\n
Major unions also announced plans to wage a general strike on July 16 after the Greek government submitted a draft bill to the parliament on Tuesday, detailing the redeployment of civil servants.\n<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the government announced on Tuesday that it was placing 4,200 workers, including school guards and teachers, on an eight-month suspension with reduced pay this month.\n<\/p>\n
By the end of this year, some 25,000 civil servants overall must be redeployed and an additional 4,000 fired under terms of the new bailout agreement.\n<\/p>\n
On Monday, eurozone finance ministers agreed on the recommendations by the so-called troika of international lenders – the European Union (EU), the European Central Bank (ECB), and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) – to release 6.8 billion euros (USD 8.7 billion) in rescue loans.\n<\/p>\n
The bailout arrived despite a missed deadline by the government to place 12,500 workers on an involuntary transfer program.\n<\/p>\n
Athens was granted a 110-billion-euro (USD 145-billion) bailout by the so-called troika in May 2010.\n<\/p>\n
Another 130-billion euro (USD 170-billion) rescue package was approved in February 2012.\n<\/p>\n
The country has been at the epicenter of the eurozone debt crisis, while harsh austerity measures have left about half a million people without jobs.\n<\/p>\n
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