The parliament in Greece has narrowly approved a public sector reform bill that will see thousands of people lose their jobs.
In a 153-140 vote, MPs backed the bill tied to the country's fresh 6.8bn euros (£5.8bn) of bailout loans, needed to keep Greece afloat.
During the debate thousands of protesters rallied outside the parliament in the capital Athens.
Greece has recently been hit by a series of strikes against the cuts.
'Unsustainable' debt
Under the bill, more than 4,000 state employees, including teachers and local government workers, face dismissal this year.
In addition, 25,000 will be put into a "mobility pool" by the end of the year.
The employees will have an eight-month period on 75% of their salaries in which to seek redeployment, 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 - the European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund.
Previous austerity measures have led to cuts to salaries and pensions in the public sector.
The trouble is that despite all the measures that have been taken, Greece's debt is still regarded as unsustainably high, the BBC's Chris Morris in Athens reports.
He says that sooner or later a new debate will have to begin, about writing off another chunk of the debt. And that could mean that other countries in the eurozone - who have lent huge amounts to Greece - will not get all their money back.
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