Greece's new radical leftist government plans to rehire workers who were laid off at the country's state broadcaster ERT two years ago, causing "global shame", a government source said Friday.

"The government will table a bill to establish ERT (anew) on Thursday," the government source said, while stressing that this would not put the stricken eurozone country's finances under any additional strain.

The bill would "bring back those dismissed who wish to return. . . and upgrade the programme content," the source said.

The previous conservative-led government in July 2013 shut down the TV station and fired some 2,600 people in order to meet layoff quotas laid down by Greece's international creditors.

It was a move that brought "global shame" to Greece and sparked international outrage, the source said.

The shutdown also plunged the government then into crisis when its moderate leftist coalition ally defected in protest.

A scaled-back version of the broadcaster, rebranded as NERIT and with far fewer staff, was later reinstated under pressure from the European Broadcasting Union and Greece's top administrative court.

The hard-left government, which swept to power last month vowing to reverse painful austerity cuts, has pledged to Greece's international creditors to refrain from scrapping previous fiscal reforms without prior consultation.

But the official source in Athens argued on Friday that bringing back hundreds of former ERT staff "would not burden the state budget."

To this end, there will be a "small increase" in electricity bills to fund ERT's restoration, said minister of state Nikos Pappas.