Greece's parliament passed the bill on pension reforms after a strenuous three days of debates, in spite of sweeping weeks-long protests that saw hundreds of thousands of workers take to the streets, Agence France Presse (AFP) reported.

On March 19 alone, the daytime rally in central Athens attracted more than 100 000 people. Its organisers, Greece's largest private and public sector unions – GSEE and ADEDY – staged individual and smaller protests at night.

The daytime protest witnessed another round of clashes between riot police and demonstrators. While protesters took out pavement slabs and threw them at police officers, police responded by firing tear gas. Police would not say whether it took any protesters into custody.

The bill stipulates the merger of the existing 150 funds into less than a dozen. In addition, the bill would allow all employess who have worked for 37 years to retire with a full pension.

The Greek cabinet said it was satisfied that the most important part of the social security reform was accomplished, allowing Greece to move onto other important tasks, such as the sell-off of state-run port services, the endorsement of the national zoning plan and deciding on the future of Olympic Airlines.

The vote on the pension reform put an end to a 16-day strike by municipal workers and street cleaners, which left Athens and other large cities bogged down in rotting refuse. Cleaning of the refuse has already begun, although it would take a week before refuse levels would return to normal. Nevertheless, the Union of Municipal Workers (POE-OTA) said it would resume the strike, yet did not specify when.