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Athens - Greece will sack 200 000 public servants from 151 state companies long considered a burden on the country's finances, radio reports said on Tuesday.
Officials said the government had asked selected state-owned companies to proceed with the immediate dismissal of 10% of their workforce within two weeks.
Affected companies included the Athens News Agency, state broadcaster ERT, the National Railway and the Athens metro, according to the reports.
The government has said it plans to shed about 200 000 jobs from the public sector by 2015 and will abolish public bodies that no longer serve a purpose.
It will also proceed with salary adjustments for public sector workers, who have already had their wages cut by more than 20% since last year.
Foreign auditors from the European Union and the International Monteary Fund have pressed Greece to speed up privatisation and focus on structural reforms and spending cuts, by cutting down on the large number of civil servants.
Greece is set to resume suspended talks with international creditors on September 19, after they threatened last week to withhold a sixth bailout tranche of about €8bn because of the country's repeated fiscal slippages.
The southern Mediterranean country was granted a €110bn bailout loan in May 2010, linked to strict austerity conditions. It was also promised a second bailout worth €109 billion euros in July.
