Greek workers staged a 24-hour nationwide strike on Tuesday (July 16) in protest of the government's plans to fire thousands of public sector staff, disrupting transport and forcing hospitals to rely on emergency staff.

The latest strike comes ahead of a parliamentary vote expected on Wednesday (July 17) on reforms Athens agreed with its European Union and International Monetary Fund (IMF) lenders as a condition for 6.8 billion euros in aid to be released by Friday's (July 19) deadline.

On Thursday (July 18), German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble visits Athens, which is also expected to draw protests from Greeks who blame European paymaster Germany for austerity policies that have shrunk income levels and boosted unemployment.

Greece's lenders, which have bailed it out twice with 240 billion euros in aid, have grown impatient with the slow progress it has made in streamlining a 600,000-strong public sector widely seen as corrupt and inefficient.

But with unemployment at an all-time high and at twice the euro zone average, many Greeks are furious at plans to put 12,500 workers into a "mobility pool" by September, giving them eight months to find work in another department or get fired.

Some 25,000 workers will be placed in the scheme by the end of the year.

Presented by Adam Justice