HispanicBusiness

Greece's conservative-led government plans to use emergency provisions to stop a planned teachers' strike that would disrupt university entrance exams this month, spokesman Simos Kedikoglou said Monday.

The provisions fall under the emergency civil mobilization order, usually invoked for national disasters and other crises, but which can be used to force civil servants to work if there is a threat to public order.

Teachers who fail to report to work face fines, imprisonment or immediate termination.

Greece's high-school teachers' union is planning to start a number of strikes on May 17, the day on which exams begin for final-year pupils and university candidates.

The strikes are to protest wage cuts, staff shortages and planned layoffs.