By Magda Panoutsopoulou

ATHENS

Greece’s largest public sector union staged a rally in central Athens on Wednesday to demand an end to pension cuts and tax rise.

The rally -- being followed by a 24-hour strike on all public sectors -- is the largest one since Greece’s exit from the bailout program in August.

Northern Greek city of Thessaloniki also witnessed a similar strike.

In an online statement, the Civil Servants Confederation said: “ADEDY demands the gradual restoration of all wages and pensions as of 2019, higher tax allowance levels, hirings of permanent public sector employees in order to cover the gaps in the health, education, social services, social security and the abolition of the real estate property tax, a reduction in value added tax to 15 percent and the abolition of all memorandum laws.”

Giorgos Belos, a 48-year-old security officer, said the exit from the bailout program was a “fiasco”.

“There is no exit. We still pay the debts of the ones that ate the money” he said, referring to the previous governments.

“We still work overtime and have to cover the staff shortage. We still see no increase on our salaries,” he complained.

Working as a nurse in a large hospital in central Athens, Maria Panou cried out against the shortage in staff and materials in public hospitals.

“We don’t have enough people to treat the patients, not enough beds for the critically wounded. There is even a lack of the most necessary material in some hospitals” she said.

Greece has been the recipient of three bailout deals since 2010.

It has worked to avoid bankruptcy with the financial help of the International Monetary Fund, the EU, and the European Central Bank and borrowed what amounts to €260 billion ($306 billion).

In late 2017, the country reached a deal with its lenders on reforms that they must perform under its bailout program, in a hope to end the aid program by August.