


It is the third time this year that Prime Minister Antonis Samaras's government has invoked emergency law to force strikers back to work to try to show foreign lenders who bailed out Greece that the country is sticking to unpopular reforms.



It has called for a 24-hour strike when exams start on 17 May and rolling strikes the following week.



OLME plans to hold a rally in central Athens on Monday and called on the main public and private sector unions, representing about half the country's workforce, to stage a general strike in solidarity on 17 May.


Education Minister Constantine Arvanitopoulos said banning the strike was necessary because students had a "sacred right" to sit exams without disruption.

The main opposition has called on the government to withdraw the law and open dialogue with the teachers after the exams.

"These threats by the prime minister and his government are directly against the overwhelming majority of workers and society," the Syriza party, which opposes the country's bailout, said in a statement.

The government broke a taboo last month by agreeing to dismiss 15,000 public sector workers by the end of 2014, a key demand by its European Union and International Monetary Fund lenders to qualify for further rescue loans.