Greek Workers to Strike as Government to Axe More Jobs and Increase Tax Collection

Thousands of Greek workers will go on a 24-hour general strike next week as Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras confirmed that the government will implement even more job and spending cuts while also ramping up tax collection.

In the first major protest against the government's plan to cut thousands of public-sector employees to please its international lenders, Greek workers will walk out of their jobs next Tuesday to coincide with a parliamentary vote.

"The government and the lenders need to finally realise that we are people - not numbers," said Greek workers' union GSEE.

"Our fight will continue and it will intensify as long as those who take decisions insist on driving the people to poverty".

On 16 July, Greece's parliament will vote in the policies it had agreed with its European Union (EU) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) lenders as a condition to get the rest of its bailout cash.

Austerity Bites Down on Greece

Earlier this week, the Troika - the European Union, IMF and European Central Bank (ECB) - agreed to drip feed €6.8bn (£5.9bn, $8.8bn) into Greece but stopped short of granting the full €8.1bn bailout tranche, unless it proved it will implement strict public sector reforms.

Greece's total bailout package is worth €240bn in emergency aid.

The country has agreed, as part of its rescue package terms, to cut 15,000 public sector jobs by the end of 2014.

Although the Greek government laid out plans to place 12,500 public sector workers into a so-called "mobility scheme," which is aimed at transferring or terminating their employment within a year, it has already missed the June deadline.

Greece is still struggling to axe jobs and shore up cash, and continues to deliberate on whether to implement a hugely unpopular property tax.

On Wednesday, Finance Minister Stournaras said Greece's its bailout programme was on track to meet the targets agreed with its international lenders.

In a draft report, dated July 2013, the government said the country's fiscal outlook for 2013-14 remained subject to high uncertainty as a crackdown on tax collection would be was concentrated in the second half of the year.

"Failure to deliver the targeted improvement in collection performance would imply the need to seek alternative measures to close the emerging fiscal gap," it said.