Greece braces for week of fresh strikes

Greece braced Sunday for a week of fresh strikes against planned job cuts, with civil servants announcing further protest action just as the country's international creditors launch a new audit. Main public sector union ADEDY announced a two-day strike for Tuesday and Wednesday while teachers' union OLME and the union of municipal workers POE-OTA said they were planning a 48-hour strike Monday and Tuesday. "We will continue our struggle against the destructive policies of the government and the troika (the EU, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank creditors)," ADEDY in a statement. ADEDY, which is in talks with main private sector union GSEE to turn Tuesday into a general strike, said the protest action has been especially designed to coincide with the latest visit by the troika's mission chiefs. Thousands of civil servants demonstrated in Greece last week, fearing additional lay-offs and protesting against a job redeployment scheme demanded by the creditors in return for access to bailout loans. Civil servants placed on the scheme have to accept new posts or spend eight months on reduced salaries as alternative posts are found, with the risk of losing their jobs altogether. Overall, Greece has pledged to axe 4,000 state jobs and redeploy 25,000 public sector workers by the end of the year. On Sunday, troika chiefs launched a new audit of Greek fiscal performance and reforms that will determine the release of a scheduled loan instalment of 1.0 billion euros ($1.4 billion) from the country's EU-IMF bailout.