BY REBECCA AJANI
EKITI State government has suspended the payment of Minimum Wage, with a cut in the salaries of workers as well as political appointees.
The state government announced on Friday that the Consequential Salary Adjustment, which captured workers on Grade Levels 07 to 12, had been suspended for a period of three months.
The workers had been receiving the minimum wage since January.
The new adjustment would however not affect workers on grade levels 01 and 06.
Labour unions in the state had, at the end of last year, threatened to shut down activities of the state government if Governor Kayode Fayemi failed to implement the N30,000 minimum wages and the consequential adjustment to workers across board.
In March, protesting workers paralysed activities at the Ekiti State House of Assembly for over three hours over the minimum wage.
The agreement to cut salaries was reached on Friday in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, during the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the state government and organised labour.
Those who represented the government at the meeting were Head of Service, Mrs Peju Babafemi; Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Labour Matters, Oluyemi Esan; and Permanent Secretary, Office of Establishment and Service Matters, Bayo Opeyemi.
The Chairmen, Nigerian Labour Congress, Kolapo Olatunde; Trade Union Congress, Sola Adigun; and Joint Negotiating Council, Kayode Fatomiluyi, were also present, including their Secretaries.
They signed on behalf of the labour centres.
