The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has appealed to the federal government to compel state governors owing the national minimum wage to pay without further delay.

NLC president Ayuba Wabba made the appeal at the ongoing 110th session of the International Labour Conference in Geneva, Switzerland, on Saturday.

“The Nigerian government needs to call them to order and ask them to implement the national minimum wage for workers in those states,” he said.

Mr Wabba was giving an update on issues that affect Nigerian workers to the ILO Committee on Experts, on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations.

He said four out of the 36 states have yet to commence or implement the minimum wage since 2019 when the federal government began implementation of the wage in the country.

“In 2019, the minimum wage was enacted, but as I speak, four states have not implemented it and they are Taraba, Zamfara, Cross River and Abia.

“They have not commenced the implementation of the minimum wage and this is an infraction on the law.

“So, under the convention, the Nigerian government has the obligation to compel those states to implement this very important convention because we have ratified it,’’ he said.

Mr Wabba said under the ILO constitutional requirements, Nigeria as a country must report progress so far made on the important convention, as a result of the Committee of Experts.

He noted that the four states had violated the law and had also violated the convention.

(NAN)