Nigeria’s Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige on Sunday called on state governments and other employers of labour not to delay the implementation of the ₦30, 000 new national minimum wage.

Addressing newsmen in Abuja, the minister said the immediate implementation of a new salary regime remained the only way to avoid a huge backlog of arrears that will likely create labour unrest.

Ngige advised the states to avoid the mistake they made in 2011 when they carried out percentage increase across board for workers thereby placing them in a position of not being able to pay wages.

He said no state governor can refuse to implement the minimum wage as it has become a national law, stressing that any employer of labour that has not started the payment is already owing workers arrears of the new wage.

Ngige said: “The minimum wage was one of the products of the technical committee that worked on the palliatives as a result of the increase in pump price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS).

“We were the anchor ministry and I led the government delegation comprising about seven ministers, the National Salaries and Wages Commission and the state government.”

He added: “Any state government that has not started implementation of the new minimum wage is now owing workers especially if they have not started paying ₦30, 000. They are owing workers effective from 18th of April, the new minimum wage.

“We are now in a committee, working out a new template with which we will adjust the consequential adjustment upstairs for those already earning above ₦30, 000.”