Environment Ministry workers to suspend slowdown

Environmental Protection Ministry employees announced Tuesday that they were halting their month-long slowdown for 30 days. However, they warned that if work conditions did not improve, they would resume their protest at the end of the month. The employees have been protesting the fact that their salaries are thirty percent lower than comparable ones in other ministries. Their protest has mainly taken the form of refusing to issue businesses requiring permits from the ministry. The employees said they would begin reissuing those permits Tuesday but they would be valid only for the next month.