Thousands of Greek workers are holding a 24-hour strike called by trade unions to protest against government plans to cut public sector¹ jobs.

希腊数千工人正在举行一场工会发起的24小时大罢工，以抗议政府削减公共部门职位的计划。

Hospital services, public transport and flights are being affected² by the industrial action.

Demonstrations³ have been building for several days over the latest set of deeply unpopular austerity measures.

MPs plan to pass a bill this week to start receiving 6.8bn euros (£5.8bn) of bailout loans to keep Greece afloat.

Greece's international creditors⁴ demanded the cuts to approve the latest batch⁵ of loans from its international bailout programme, as agreed earlier this month. They said Greece's reform programme was moving too slowly.

Under the bill, which comes to a vote on Wednesday, more than 4,000 state employees, including teachers and local government workers, face dismissal（解雇，免职） this year.

In addition, 25,000 will be put into a "mobility⁶ pool" by the end of the year. 

The employees will have an eight-month period on 75% of their salaries to be redeployed, by which point, if they are not transferred to another department, they will face redundancy.

It is thought up to 11,000 could lose their jobs by the end of 2014, to comply with the demands of the troika（三驾马车） - the European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary⁷ Fund.

Previous austerity measures have made cuts to salaries and pensions in the public sector.