GREECE was paralysed by strikes yesterday against new EU-dictated austerity cuts and attacks on workers’ rights.

The legislation being debated in the Athens parliament includes new obstacles to the right to strike, speeding up mortgage repossessions and more cuts to family benefits.

Strikes shut down all public transport in Athens and caused severe delays in the rest of the country.

Teachers and doctors also walked out and dozens of flights were cancelled or rescheduled in a strike by air traffic controllers.

Several hundred people marched peacefully to parliament in the morning, in a demonstration organised by civil servants’ unions.

Another two separate protest marches were planned later in the day.

The measures are demanded by the Troika of creditors in return for the latest instalment of the 2015 bailout agreed by the Syriza-led government despite its rejection in a national referendum.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said approval of the proposed measures will bring Greece “just one step from the end of the bailout” in August.