Greek labor unions on Wednesday called a 24-strike on July 16 to protest against planned public sector layoffs demanded by the country's international lenders in exchange for more funds.

The country's largest private and public sector unions GSEE and ADEDY, which combined represent about 2.5 million workers, have staged repeated strikes since the debt crisis broke out in late 2009.

"The government and the lenders need to finally realize that we are people - we won't become numbers," GSEE said in a statement.

The July 16 strike could coincide with a parliamentary vote expected next week on the policies Athens agreed with its European Union and International Monetary Fund lenders as a condition for more aid.

Among the measures included in the multi-pronged bill are job cuts for school guards, municipal police and other local government posts. A date for the vote has yet to be set, but the government hopes to put it to deputies by July 19.

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 almost 27 percent, twice the euro zone average, the workers 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, the government has said.

Representing about 2.5 million workers, GSEE and the biggest public sector union ADEDY have gone on strike repeatedly since Greece was plunged into a debt crisis in late 2009.

While action has been less frequent and more muted than last year when marches often turned violent, protests against public sector reform have picked up since the government agreed this week to shrink the civil service.

Thousands of municipal workers have already held rowdy marches in the capital this week, with uniformed police riding their motorbikes to ministries, sounding sirens and honking horns.

POE-OTA, the federation of local government unions which staged two strikes this week, was due to decide later on Wednesday whether to take more action. Dozens of municipal workers held sit-ins at several public buildings in Athens and other Greek cities on Wednesday.