After abruptly ending talks with interior minister Panos Skourletis, the head of the municipal worker’s union, Nikos Trakas, demanded that prime minister Alexis Tsipras intervene.

Skourletis, he said, had thrown out the union’s counter-proposal – following the government’s olive branch offer of extending short-term contracts and permanent job status to around 2,500 workers – after five minutes. “We will continue the fight and on Thursday we will demand to see the prime minister of the country because the interior minister is incompetent,” he said.

Meanwhile Thessaloniki’s mayor, Yannis Boutaris, has announced that he will outsource rubbish collection to private contractors as piles of garbage gather almost a week after the strike began. Temperatures are set to hit 43 degrees Celsius on Wedsnesday.