Greek state workers disrupt audit talks, again

Doctors and medics march during a protest in central Athens September 30, 2011.

ATHENS (Reuters) - Angry civil servants blocked Greek government buildings on Friday, disrupting talks for a second day with international lenders on a lifeline bailout.

At the Transport Ministry, dozens of employees prevented senior members of an international inspection team from reaching the minister. When Yannis Ragousis did later meet them elsewhere he assured them the government would not be swayed by protests.

"At a time when we are asking millions of Greeks to make sacrifices, it is our moral duty not to bow to special interests," the minister was quoted as saying by an aide.

After a three-week breakdown in negotiations that unnerved financial markets, Greece and inspectors from the European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund resumed talks on Thursday on an 8 billion euro aid tranche, which the country needs to avoid running out of cash next month.

But the meetings with the "troika" of auditors have got off to a bumpy start, with state workers protesting against the austerity measures the government pledged to lure the inspectors back to Athens. Access to several ministries was blocked.

Prime Minister George Papandreou's Socialist government plans to cut its wage bill by 20 percent and put about 30,000 people in a so-called "labor reserve," effectively a waiting-room for redundancy.

DISSENT

About 50 civil servants, some holding banners reading "Enough: We Want to Live," barred access to the Finance Ministry.

A lock-out at the national statistics office ELSTAT forced the agency to postpone publication of two sets of economic indicators on Friday. ELSTAT staff have been on strike since Tuesday. "These measures, which expropriate and dishonor us, must stop," they said in a statement.

About 70 employees gathered outside the Justice Ministry in response to a visit by troika officials.

Waiving Greek flags, about 50 military veterans broke through an army cordon to enter Defense Ministry premises, protesting at pension cuts.

"We have been serving Greece all our lives, and now this," one of them shouted in front of rolling television cameras.

Local government employees, students and people with disabilities were among groups planning other protests in Athens later in the day.

There was also some fresh dissent among the Greek government's own supporters. Ten Socialist members of parliament sent Ragousis a letter urging him to soften a reform removing restrictions on taxi licenses, a measure which has incensed owners, who have staged repeated strikes across Greece.

EU governments, notably in economic leader Germany, are struggling to persuade voters to offer Greece more support. Any sign Greeks themselves are not following plans to cut spending and boost their economy may make that harder.

Austria's parliament followed Germany's in backing a bigger bailout fund, though in both countries there has been vocal opposition. EU leaders are piling pressure on little Slovakia, where some members of government question the wisdom of the plan, not to veto the additional funding in the coming weeks.

Papandreou got a rare piece of good news late on Thursday, when gambling firm OPAP agreed in principle to pay 935 million euros ($1.28 billion) to extend its concession and obtain new licenses, giving a much-needed boost to the government's ailing privatization program.

This is only the second money-raising agreement Papandreou's government has concluded since it announced in June it would raise 50 billion euros from asset sales over five years.

It had raised just 400 million euros under the program so far, less than the 1.7 billion euros it had promised to obtain by September 30. Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos has already lowered the target for 2011 to 4 billion euros from 5 billion.

($1 = 0.733 Euros)

(Additional reporting by Vassilis Triantafyllou; Writing by Harry Papachristou; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)